Senior Alejandro Sosa
Gonzaga Bulletin: How do you feel about diversity at Gonzaga?
Alejandro Sosa: There's definitely not enough diversity.
GB: Should Gonzaga work towards being more diverse?
AS: It could be a double-edged sword. If you try to force diversity, it could just create riffs between students, as it kind of already is with the Saudi Arabians doing their own thing, the Japanese seem to hang out together, and white people seem to hang out together. It all seems to be too forced. As Spokane grows more diverse, then maybe Gonzaga will naturally become more diverse. At the same time, more diversity adds to the reputation of Gonzaga being a really good school and being accepting of all races and all religions.
GB: How have your personal experiences shaped your views on diversity?
AS: When I grew up, I lived in Mexico, but I crossed the boarder everyday into San Diego to go to school, where it is such a diverse city. At the high school that I went to, you see a lot of African-Americans, a lot of Mexicans, a lot of Filipinos, you see a lot of diversity. I do miss that. I feel that Spokane in general, not just Gonzaga, is lacking in that department. However, going to a high school that had diversity, but that was still predominantly white, it's not as uncomfortable as, maybe, international students feel.
GB: Have you had any problems with being an ethnic minority at Gonzaga?
AS: The biggest problem that I can see is that a lot of people are ignorant about people from Mexico, as opposed to people of Mexican heritage who grew up in America. They come up with assumptions about Mexican-Americans, when that's not really my culture. I am actually from Mexico. A certain part of it too, northwestern Mexico is much different than southwestern Mexico. Also, I was raised in middle-to-upper class society down there, so coming up here where people are not used to seeing that, it gets a little irritating when they make assumptions when its not true. I have not encountered any outright racism or discrimination, or maybe it was so small and minor that I didn't really notice.
Senior Jessica Hubbard
Gonzaga Bulletin: How do you feel about diversity at Gonzaga?
Jessica Hubbard: There isn't that much.
GB: Should Gonzaga work towards being more diverse?
JH: Yeah, I don't see how it could hurt. Diversity is always good. I don't think that it should be at the expense of other qualified people getting in though.
GB: How have your personal experiences shaped your views on diversity?
JH: At my high school [in San Francisco], I was the minority. The school was mostly Asian, then blacks, then whites. So, I experienced a lot of different cultures. We got Chinese New Year off every year. We had assemblies for Kwanza. I know a lot about every culture. Then I came here and there was not that much diversity. You can go to a restaurant and not see a single person who is not Caucasian, whereas at home that would never, ever happen.
GB: Do you like the experience here or at home better?
JH: They both have their advantages. Growing up with a lot of culture changed who I am, but now that I am grown up, living here gives me a new perspective. But I feel like I would have missed out on a lot if I were to grow op here.
Senior Dominique Remy
Gonzaga Bulletin: How do you feel about diversity at Gonzaga?
Dominique Remy: It depends on what kind of diversity you are looking at. Obviously, there are more female than there are men. In regards to race diversity or socioeconomic diversity, I think that there is a very large slant for Caucasian people and people who have more money. At the same time, Gonzaga does a lot of different things that it can to try to offset that with the amount of scholarships that they give. I think that it is pretty obvious this year that there are more minority students walking around on campus than in years prior. When I came in as a freshman, there were 43 African-Americans at Gonzaga University, which was a big change from my Jesuit high school which had 110.
GB: How have your personal experiences shaped your views on diversity?
DR: As much as there may be a lack of diversity at Gonzaga in certain aspects, I think that it is important for those students who are in the majority to experience the minority and for those who are in the minority to experience the majority. After my freshman year, I ended up going back to my high school to give a talk on diversity and on of the things that I told 500 or so young African-American men and women was to learn how to interact and relate with people of Caucasian descent. A lot of them came from predominately African-American middle-schools and high-schools and I thought that it was very important for them to understand that their workplace, if they decide to go into a high paying job, will be predominately Caucasian and the same things in regard to gender, although that is shifting. You have to learn to work with people that are different from yourself.
GB: Should Gonzaga work towards being more diverse?
DR: Absolutely, in fact there needs to be a lot bigger effort by Gonzaga to build diversity not only in regard to students, but diversity in regard to teachers too. The one thing we have talked about a lot of times, in the BSU or other multicultural programs at Gonzaga, is that even if you work to attract people of different ethnic backgrounds to come to Gonzaga, a lot still do not want to come because it is in Spokane. At least having an extra one, two or three people with different backgrounds to come and share their experiences will still be that much helpful. I have heard from a lot of students how impressed that they are with the amount of diversity that Gonzaga now has, compared to previous years.
GB: Have you had any problems with being an ethnic minority at Gonzaga?
DR: The beauty of Gonzaga is that my ethnic diversity has not held me down in regards to doing and achieving what I want to do and achieve, which says a lot in a city that is 90 percent Caucasian. Any problems have not necessarily been with the process of Gonzaga itself. Any problems have come from the students, from people casually saying the "n" word using it joking with their friends. At the beginning of this year, two days before school started, I received 10 text messages that said "nigger, nigger, nigger, nigger." I'm old enough and mature enough let that roll off my back, but that was unsettling. At the end of the day, 99.9 percent of Gonzaga students would say that there isn't any type of racism that exists at Gonzaga because a lot of times when it happens to us it isn't something that we want to talk about.
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