Campus cultural center offers a diverse orientation

By: Kimberly Tsao

Posted: 5/5/08

The MOSAIC Cross Cultural Center cordially invites freshmen to a New Student Welcome Reception every year. The center divides the event into different racial categories: African-American, Asian Pacific Islander or Latino/Chicano.

"I think it's weird," said Hsin Chang, a senior graphic design major who is Chinese. "They're all students. Why separate them?"

The purpose of the reception, said Sadika Hara, assistant director of MOSAIC Cross Cultural Center, is to give marginalized populations a chance to find community "pretty immediately."

"It's important to be reflected when you come into college," she said, "to know that there are people you can relate to or who may have similar cultural backgrounds that you can connect with."

Of these groups, the Hispanic community is the largest at SJSU, according to the Office of Institutional Research, with 4,908 enrolled this semester. They constitute 15.9 percent of the student body, while the African American and Asian Pacific Islander students make up less than 6 percent, at 1,496 and 266 students respectively.

MOSAIC hosts a two-hour optional reception for each race as part of the Fall Welcome Days for incoming students. Once the freshmen find their way through the zigzag staircases of the Student Union, they can mingle with members of student organizations, faculty and the community.

"(The reception) is how I met other organizations and how I got involved on campus and in the community," said Milan Balinton, a junior communication studies major who is black and Filipino. He said he's continuing his college education because he met his advisers at the reception.

In the past, people from the Disability Resource Center, the Financial Aid Office and the police department have attended.

Andre Barnes, UPD chief of police, said that as an African-American, he wanted to make sure that group, which typically doesn't do well in terms of longevity here on campus, succeeds.

"I try to make sure that I go to all the student orientations and be supportive," said Barnes, who has attended the reception for the last three years.

Balinton said that being able to identify with people who have similar values or cultural beliefs within your race or cultural background helps those people graduate and learn more about themselves throughout their college experience.

"If I'm the only brown-skinned in the class, my professor knows when I am present or not present," he said. "(When) an issue comes up that's African-American, I feel like the weight automatically shifts on me, or most people, like, look at me."

Balinton, said he not only went to the African-American reception but the Latino/Chicano one as well. He said he would have gone to the Asian Pacific Islander event if he didn't have a class at the same time.

Hara said anyone can come to any of the receptions - regardless of race.

The turnout at the Latino/Chicano reception has been "steady," Hara said, and the African-American reception retains the best attendance. Although the reception for Asian Pacific Islanders has the smallest attendance, she said it's no less significant.

"It's problematic because it's an important space," Hara said. "We hope that students will want to come."

Hara said the events remain separated so full respect and appreciation can be given to each heritage.

"I'm not sure the culture would be honored if we … make that one large reception," Hara said.

She said the center doesn't hold a Caucasian or European reception because in the past, they were the colonizers.

"Historically, there was so much oppression where folks from these populations were not allowed to celebrate culture," Hara said.

Filipino-American student William Escobar looks at it differently.

"Separation by anything, according to history, didn't work out," said Escobar, a senior mechanical engineering major.