Diverse Dining
Begin relationships at dinner table

While the TCU admissions office has begun to make noticeable strides to diversify the student body, the students have seemingly made equal strides to segregate the campus.

On any given day, The Main is filled with students of different racial, ethnic, gender and geographic make ups, but the students with differing backgrounds and beliefs rarely sit on the same side of the cafeteria, let alone at the same table.

Although the numbers are not in for the spring semester yet, minority freshman and transfer enrollment increased by 26.4 percent last fall, according to Institutional Research. TCU saw about a 12 percent increase in minority student applications this fall, said Cornell Thomas, special assistant to the chancellor for diversity and community at TCU.

With an enrollment of approximately 7,600 graduate and undergraduate students that represent 48 states and more than 70 countries, the responsibility to diversify now falls on the students and professors.

Having people from different walks of life attending the same college doesn’t accomplish anything if there is a lack of correspondence between those with different beliefs and backgrounds.

“A greater variety of students, with different life experiences, facilitates the learning experience,” said Joanne Green, assistant professor of political science.

But this learning can only be accomplished if students are willing to communicate with one another inside and outside of the classroom setting.

Anne Lucchetti, assistant professor of speech communication, said professors play a part in learning diversity as well.

“We have to be willing to discuss racial and gender differences,” she said. “We just have to do it in a sensitive way.”

If discussing issues of diversity is too much to ask, at least the students can eat meals together.

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