Behind the Beauty: Wittenberg University’s Hidden Issue

Behind the Beauty: Wittenberg University’s Hidden Issue
ROUGH DRAFT
By: Hannah Hoffman

As you enter the campus of Wittenberg University you smell the fresh air as the colorful flowers aligning the perimeter of Thomas Library catch your eye. You see a smiling student body and hear wild cheers from Bill Edwards Field. But Behind all the beauty and buoyancy lies an issue that is rarely discussed and continues to linger throughout campus.

Most students who attend Wittenberg enjoy their experience. But most students who attend Wittenberg come from small towns outside of Ohio cities. They are often unexposed to different races, religions, and politics.
According to the Princeton Review, a tool that many use to look at potential colleges, Wittenberg is not in the top 20 “Little Race/Class Interaction” list. However, the statistics for Wittenberg state that the student body is composed of 71 percent Caucasian and about 8 percent minority, including African Americans, international students, Asians, Hispanics, and Native Americans. These statistics are far more extreme than the top two schools that the Princeton Review cites as “Little Race/Class Interaction” schools. The number one school on the list, Fairfield University, has 11 percent fewer white students than Wittenberg has.

The Princeton Review also cites Wittenberg saying that they, themselves,"provide an education dedicated to intellectual inquiry and wholeness of person within a diverse residential community." Maybe this is wishful thinking, or perhaps something they hope to achieve in the future. Princeton Review also says that "quite a few people mention they wouldn't mind seeing the student body diversified through out-of-state and international recruiting." but that "the school 'has embraced diversity so the minority students fit right in.'"

Granted, when evaluating diversity in any setting, one does not just look solely at percentages. Another important factor to take into consideration is the interaction between the different races. But if anyone has visited the Central Dining Room, or even the library, it is clear that the minorities group together. International students socialize with international students, black students socialize with black students, and white students socialize with white students.

Wittenberg's Multicultural Student Program, headed by Dr. Forest Wortham, has, for the most part, made the minorities feel comfortable in their surroundings. But the issue of race interaction remains. Minorities may feel comfortable, but may only feel comfortable because they clique with one another. In addition, the "Multicultural Connectors," are students who "reach out to first-year students to make them aware of what’s happening on campus and help them adjust to college," according to the Wittenberg University website. The site also states that Connectors do not have to be black but "is for all students of color."

Programs such as the Multicultural Program have majority black population. It almost puts the University behind by creating a "multicultural" group that is not multicultural. The purpose of the group is to integrate the student body socially, but it is evident that, although it makes minorities more comfortable, that it hinders that mixture of races that Wittenberg so desperately needs.

Not only is the issue visual on campus, but it is extremely verbal. Less-so in the classroom than social settings, racial slurs and offensive comments are made freely with little to no objection. This is also quite common on sports teams in “locker room talk.”

To the students that are used to this homogenous population, there is no problem- they know nothing different. However, to staff and students that come from primarily cities or areas where there is a plethora of cultures, it can make or break their decision to stay.

This is not to say that everyone at Wittenberg is oblivious to the problem or racist. But it is a very important issue that is far too overlooked.