When Vijay Prashad was at Macalester on Friday for Diversity Weekend he asked me if I thought that there was a gap between the International Students and the Domestic Students of color. I told him that I did believe that there was, and while explaining to him why I thought so, I realized that much of the reason was systemic. Though Macalester claims that it values academic excellence, internationalism, multiculturalism, and commitment to service, I have to wonder if the institution chooses favorites.

I think that a visible example of the disparities between support for internationalism and multiculturalism can be seen by contrasting Diversity Weekend and the International Roundtable. These two annual events are reflective of two of Macalester’s pillars, yet the gaps between them clearly favor one over the other. It’s disturbing to me that the International Roundtable was able to advertise the event with a billboard on the corner of Grand and Snelling, while Diversity Weekend’s equivalent was painting the rock near the library because of a tighter budget. It’s disturbing to me that the students planning Diversity Weekend have been scrounging for financial support from every academic department, student organization, and student affairs office when the International Roundtable is supported by ample funds from the DeWitt Wallace Distinguished Visitors Fund and the International Studies Department. It’s disturbing to me that the International Roundtable will bring people to Macalester from all over the Twin Cities while we struggled to get students already at Macalester to come to Diversity Weekend events. Even more disturbing to me is thinking about how many more people will be at Niall Ferguson’s talk opening the International Roundtable than attended George Lipsitz’s talk opening Diversity Weekend, because Macalester has taught us that internationalism is more important than multiculturalism. Though the administration may not explicitly say this, sometimes actions speak louder than words. In this case, the disparities are too great to be ignored.

As some of you may know, there is a recent proposal for a new Center for Global Studies and Citizenship. The center would merge the Community Service Office, the International Studies Center, the Internship Program, and possibly the International Studies Department. The mission of the center would be “to encourage, promote and support learning that prepares students for lives as effective and ethical ‘global citizen-leaders;’ scholarship that enriches the public and academic discourse on important questions of global significance; and service that enhances learning and/or scholarship while enriching the community.” Here we see three of Macalester’s pillars: academic excellence, internationalism, and service to the community. What about multiculturalism? Why is it that this piece is always left out? Furthermore, what would the creation of such a center say to students? It would say that multiculturalism is not important; it would say that to be a global citizen-leader one does not need to understand about the complexities of race or the intricacies of oppression. But this is not true. As students at Macalester, regardless of what race we are, it is important that we all understand race in the context of the United States because it affects every one of us.

It would be unfair of me to assert that Macalester is apathetic about issues of multiculturalism, because I do not believe that this is true. What I do believe, however, is that our institution favors internationalism far more than multiculturalism and this is where the problem lies. It is up to us, as students, as administrators, as faculty, to try and bridge the gap between internationalism and multiculturalism, for both are integral to Macalester’s success. We can not continue to ignore the presence of racism and oppression in the United States, nor can we continue to exclude multiculturalism from the rest of Macalester’s values. All students at Macalester are capable of being global citizen-leaders if we are presented with a well rounded view of the world that we live in, and that view must include multiculturalism.