“Don’t come here, go to Carleton! Don’t listen to their lies; it’s better over there!”

—Student of Color (now alumnus) to tour group
 

I think it’s time we take a trip to Northfield, to Carleton College, to compare our stances on multiculturalism. Before going further, we need to analyze any bias toward our supposed “rival.” What if I told you that I met with eight Carleton students a few weeks ago who all gave me blank looks when I joked about our rivalry? Or that one Carleton student later told me, “All we know about Macalester is that you guys play bagpipes…and we are supposed to have a rivalry?” Keep in mind that all of these students are juniors/seniors who have no sense of a rivalry. Doesn’t that make us look bad since our 2003 Spotlight has “Carleton Sucks” tattooed on an ankle introducing the C’s?

With that said, allow me to take another step back. My first year at Macalester, I met with several Carleton students on a visit to St. Olaf College. We exchanged stories about the Student of Color (SoC) experience at predominantly White campuses. At that time, Carleton was facing low retention rates, low enrollment, and the SoC who did attend became bitter with the lack of institutional support (sound familiar?).

Speaking with the “astonished” Carleton students a few weeks ago, however, showed what a difference institutional support has made to Carleton. To increase diversity, Carleton instituted a more aggressive stance on recruiting SoC by having more SoC apply. On top of that, Carleton welcomed the Posse program two years ago that enrolls at least 10 students from public high schools each year (for more info, check www.possefoundation.org). Finally, Carleton became aware of having “cultural comfort zones” and instituted cultural houses (focused for African-Americans, Latinos, Asians, Women, Jewish and LGBT students plus another for multicultural awareness) in 1998 to attract more diverse students.

Now, let’s compare this to Macalester. Our admissions policy has turned into a highly selective process where institutionalized filters are placed to target a specific population for our applicant pool, while not presenting itself to others due to an ideology that certain populations are not of “caliber.” Otherwise stated, Macalester does not have to deny admissions to a marginalized community since they are not given the chance to apply. I could regale you with horror stories from Admissions, but I think I did that enough of that last semester.

Regarding Posse, Macalester dismissed the program at the same time Carleton accepted it since the cost of the program was considered expensive and “Posse students might form a separate subculture or be perceived as not on an equal footing with other Mac students” (The Mac Weekly, December 6, 2002). The ideology of “not of our caliber” is seen once again. I should note that out of the approximately 30 Posse students attending Carleton, only one dropped out and it was due to a family occurrence. If Posse is not of a caliber to enter into a school that is ranked number 25 (Macalester) by U.S. News and World Report, then why does it have such a high retention rate at a college ranked number four (Carleton)? Might I add that there are other schools in Posse’s cohort that are ranked higher than Macalester (i.e. Bowdoin, Claremont McKenna, Colby, Grinnell, Hamilton, Trinity, Middlebury, etc.) and Posse students’ graduation rate is about 90 percent. I think it’s time to look at Posse again.

As for the cultural houses, Macalester did have a system similar to Carleton’s (Black Student Union, Mexican-Puerto Rican House, etc.) back in the 1970s, but these were later converted into language houses or sold. In their place, the Cultural House was instituted as a cumulative safe space (sounds like an oxymoron). My perspective is that the only true safe space for SoC on this campus is four chairs and a table located in front of the Lealtad-Suzuki Center. Any group that is marginalized deserves a safe space (spatial and emotional) and not only because of its members’ dietary needs (such as the Hebrew House with a kosher kitchen and the Veggie Co-op).

I am insisting that Macalester look at its “rival” in Northfield as an example. Through institutional support, the campus has changed from the nightmare stories that I heard three years ago to one of delight. Not to proclaim that Carleton is the utopia of multiculturalism—there will always be something to improve upon—but at least Carleton is listening to its SoC and has made significant changes regarding diversity. If Macalester does not open itself to change, then we will still have bitter students deterring prospective first-years from enrolling.