On Trinity College’s campus there are many problems regarding minority students fitting into the social scene and social groups. At Trinity there is a group called PRIDE and its goal is to make minority students transition from high school to college be smoother. The PRIDE group brings many minority students together at the beginning of the school year in order to make them feel more comfortable as well as give them the feeling that they fit into a group. Although PRIDE is a very good program at Trinity there are many things that it, as well as other parties can do in order to make everyone feel more comfortable. In order to do this Trinity must take ideas that have worked from other schools and implement them as their own.
The problem with race at Trinity College as well as many other places in the world is that many people do not recognize that there is a problem and will not speak up when they see an act of racism occur [1. Trinity College, “Protesting Hate at Trinity College, April 2011,” College Archives – Documents (April 1, 2011): 4]. On top of that people need to understand the factual advantages and disadvantages of their race in today’s society. White’s inherently have more privilege and opportunity than minorities and minority groups often struggle to fit in to American culture . This is a problem in today’s society and this transfers down many college communities including Trinity’s. The frat life and many social scenes on campus don’t seem to include the minority population of Trinity very much and this is a problem. There needs to be a racially equal social scene on campus so that everyone feels comfortable integrating and joining different friend groups. The frats as well as other events and organizations have to take conscious steps to make people of all races and backgrounds feel equally comfortable to join and take part in.
The solution to the problems regarding race at Trinity lies within different organizations on campus. PRIDE is a huge part of making minority students feel more welcome on campus but PRIDE needs some adjustments in order to be even more helpful. PRIDE needs to be a support system for minority students but at the same time not restrict them to staying attached to PRIDE because that will in turn cause the reverse effect than what is desired. Although PRIDE does welcome white students they should make it more known so that white students don’t feel uncomfortable joining. On top of all this there should be more classes on the subject of race in school so that whites do understand what the minority students are going through and realize that for the white students it is easier to fit in than for students of color [1. Helen Fox, When race breaks out: conversations about race and racism in college classrooms (Peter Lang, 2009)]. There needs to be more effort on the schools part to get white students involved with racial diversity on campus because no matter how much PRIDE tries to make minority students feel comfortable they will never be completely at ease until they feel like they fit in with the majority of the students on campus.
A well-recognized idea to make more students feel more comfortable on Trinity’s campus was proposed by President Jones. His idea is to discontinue all of the frat houses on campus and turn them into what he called ‘theme houses’ [1. Jones, James F. Jr., “To Reweave the Helices: Trinity’s DNA by Our Two-Hundredth Birthday” (2011). College Archives – Documents. Paper 5. p.33 http://digitalrepository.trincoll.edu/trinarchives/5]. He says this because he believes that the alcohol-fuelled parties are not always inviting to all students on campus and that theme houses have the potential to be. President Jones makes some very good points as well as ones that are not necessarily the best for the Trinity community. Fraternities are big venues on campus and to take those away would greatly anger many people. However, Mr. Jones is correct in saying that they are not always welcoming to the majority of students and that must be fixed. Something similar to what was done at Union college should be done to a less extreme extent in order to make more students feel comfortable on campus. What Union College did in 2004 was take exclusive rights of the frat houses away from the fraternities and make it so that “A fraternity chapter will still be able to occupy a wing of a dormitory, but its members might have to live alongside those of the outdoors club, a sorority, a foreign-language society, or a mix of students.” [1. Andrew Brownstein, “New York’s Union College Abolishes Its Greek Residential System,” The Chronicle of Higher Education, March 5, 2001, sec. Archives, http://chronicle.com/article/New-Yorks-Union-College/107306/.]. Trinity should take pieces of what Union College did and reformat it to fit Trinity.
What physically needs to be done at Trinity is the Fraternities need to be more involved with all the different types of students on campus. What also needs to be done is for more classes or lectures that are marketed towards white students as well as minority students so that everyone on campus can have an idea of what other types of students are going through here at Trinity. The classes and/or lectures do not have to be required because this may cause resentment towards them but must be greatly encouraged and heavily marketed so that many people attend them. The fraternities, on the other hand, should be required to do many events with different cultural houses so that it will make many more people feel like they are welcome at a vast variety of social scenes on campus. On top of that it may not be a bad idea for fraternities to have to do an amount of community service so that they can interact with the community and better themselves and the people around them.
There are many problems with the social scene on campus regarding minorities. If actions are taken and people get involved with trying to fix this problem and make all students feel more comfortable on campus Trinity has the potential of becoming an even better place. The first step is that people need to be more educated on how the many different types of students feel about their social life at Trinity and the second step is to have larger social institutions and organizations team up to try to better the lives of all students and make everyone feel more comfortable. Once this is done Trinity could become a precedent on how to create a truly welcoming community for colleges all over the country.