Race Relations Positions Created

In an effort to improve race relations in Houses and first-year dorms, at least 13 students will serve as liaisons between race relations tutors and the student body this semester.

The Multicultural Issues Forum (MCIF) is currently soliciting applications from students to fill the positions. MCIF members will work with the tutors, proctors and Assistant Dean of the College Karen E. Avery ’87 to select the student liaisons after tomorrow’s application deadline.

The effort—called the Race, Culture and Diversity Initiative—began last spring in response to a report on diversity issued by the Harvard Foundation for Intercultural and Race Relations.

“[The race relations tutors program] has been around for a while…but it hasn’t necessarily meant very much,” says MCIF Co-Chair Scott A. Rechler ’03. “It’s been more of a reactive or response-oriented role.”

According to Rechler, student liaisons will work with race relations tutors and first-year proctors to organize and publicize events—such as cultural outings and film screenings—that focus on diversity.

Avery was appointed this fall to coordinate the Houses’ race relations tutors, also in response to the foundation’s report. At the time, she said she hoped to make the tutors more of a presence.

“I want to make [the tutors] more visible in Houses and make sure people know that they exist,” Avery said last month. “In the past, sometimes they were named but didn’t have a clear purpose.”

MCIF Co-Chair Catie A. Honeyman ’04 said she was pleased with Avery’s appointment.

“I have no criticism,” she said. “I’m very impressed with what they’re doing. I think they’ve really tried to respond to student[s].”

According to Rechler, MCIF’s decision to work with race relations tutors is “a new opportunity to build new relationships.”

Prior to the Race, Culture and Diversity Initiative, the MCIF’s events—aimed to further discussions of diversity on campus—had not included race relations tutors.

“We hadn’t really thought to formally include them,” he said. “And maybe they didn’t know about us.”

Rechler said the group is working to draw student liaisons from a wide range of backgrounds by sending announcement messages to House e-mail lists and advertising to student groups that focus on issues of race and ethnicity.

“We don’t want to limit it to people who have had past experience in ethnic or cultural organizations,” he said. “This is very much a work in progress.”

—Staff writer Alexander J. Blenkinsopp can be reached at blenkins@fas.harvard.edu.

—Staff writer David S. Hirsch can be reached at hirsch@fas.harvard.edu.