DEAN of African-American Affairs Rick Turner's surprise retirement is an embarrassment to the University, but offers two important opportunities for the Office of African-American Affairs. First it provides an opportunity for frank appraisal of its success to date. Second, the office has a rare chance to change its priorities in response to such an inquiry. With these goals in mind, Turner's legacy and downfall should serve as a wake-up call for the office.
The mixed response to Turner's retirement among students and faculty says much about the predominant attitude towards diversity at the University. The only one to blame for Turner's unplanned retirement is himself. By lying about his involvement with a drug dealer, he violated the University's honor code. A student committing the same offense would be forced to leave our community of trust, and the consequences for a faculty member must be the same.
While the circumstances of his retirement do not necessarily reflect on his performance, his history of controversy should encourage us to look closer at his accomplishments in order to avoid meaningless praise. Specifically, Turner should be appraised according to how well his Office of African-American Affairs has met its goals. According to their Web site, the OAAA has a number of broad goals, which essentially consist of providing services to meet the needs of African-American students and helping to create a "pluralistic" society on Grounds.
The office does provide a vast array of services to help African-Americans succeed at the University, and it seems as if those services are working. Whether they are all necessary is open for debate, but it is probable that they played a role in raising the graduation rates of African-American students, so they must be regarded as a success. In this regard, Turner's legacy sets an example that the office should continue to follow.
In terms of encouraging a pluralistic society, the office has been less successful. The racial climate at the University is still uneasy, as evidenced by last year's multiple racial incidents. Outright racism is not the main problem, however. Whether self-imposed or not, segregation is still very much present on Grounds.
The blame for continuing racial issues at the University cannot be placed solely on the OAAA. After all, the situation on Grounds only reflects the overriding atmosphere in our country. However, it is also evident that the office has not made addressing this problem a priority, choosing instead to almost encourage "separate but equal" communities. The controversy and division surrounding Turner certainly did not help matters any more than his often racist attitudes did.
As it enters a new era, the Office of African-American Affairs must make addressing this issue a major goal. The first step is to remove the angry, racist rhetoric that Turner championed and to replace it with meaningful dialogue that does not simply make villains of whites and victims of blacks. Further, interaction between racial groups should be encouraged. Many of the OAAA's programs seem to encourage African-Americans to associate mainly with other African-Americans. There may still be a need for these sorts of support groups at a university like ours, but students should also be encouraged to step out of their comfort zones. People tend to associate with others with similar interests and backgrounds, and the OAAA's programs make it easy to do just that for one's entire four years at the University. It should be noted, of course, that not all students do so, but this practice is bound to produce exactly the sort of segregation that plagues our school. The OAAA must do a better job of encouraging African-American students to become involved in student groups that are not exclusively African-American. It is a shame that many students view groups like Honor, UJC or for that matter, The Cavalier Daily as "white" groups.
In addition, the office should attempt to reach out to non-African-American students to embrace true diversity rather than shallow political correctness. Integration does not have to mean conformity, but it does mean interaction and cooperation. The office must become visible to those students who will never use its programs, or it will continue to be that mysterious place across from Bryan Hall. Finding ways to incorporate non-African-American students into its programs may difficult, but it could be crucial for undermining segregation. Unfortunately, the Office of African-American Affairs was unable to comment on these suggestions at press time.
Even 30 years after the creation of the OAAA, our community still has to deal with serious issues related to race. Turner's retirement offers the office an opportunity to look deeper into why this is the case, and to look for real solutions.
Daniel Colbert is a Cavalier Daily Opinion columnist. He can be reached at dcolbert@cavalierdaily.com.
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