The Diversity Action Coalition, formed in response to last year’s bias incidents, held their first meeting of the year. (The Fordham Ram Archives)
By Yasmin Merchant
The Diversity Action Coalition (DAC), formed last year in response to several bias incidents that occurred on the Rose Hill and Lincoln Center campuses, kicked off the semester on Monday with a meeting to discuss impending diversity initiatives.
Representatives from student organizations, including PRIDE Alliance, Commuting Students’ Association, United Student Government, Residence Hall Association, Campus Activities Board, ASILI, The Black Student Alliance at Fordham and Dorothy Day Center.
According to the two co-chairs, Haley Hauge GSB ‘18 and Brian Daaleman FCRH ‘19, announced the coalition will form subcommittees to address specific incidents and initiatives for the year. The DAC as a whole will meet biweekly while the subcommittees will convene weekly.
The group also discussed restructuring the New Student Orientation to address more areas of diversity and inclusion on and off campus.
The DAC is continuing their work with the Core Curriculum and First Year Formation. Last year the RH College Council passed the DAC proposal to create a mandatory First Year Seminar class based off of First Year Formation but with the inclusion of more diversity elements, specifically in regard to Fordham’s relationship with the Bronx community, according to Daaleman, who also serves as a senator for USG.
“We will be working with administration to ensure the proposal is able to reach its full state in the next few years,” Daaleman said.
Currently, there are two pilot programs — one for the Gabelli School of Business and one for Rose Hill. The curriculum is uniform, but is simply separated because of scheduling differences between the schools.
The DAC is also working with Public Safety on sensitivity phrasing of email alerts. Many students took offense when a Public Safety alert in March used the term “male blacks” to describe two alleged assailants.
The university has already witnessed one sexual harrassment incident in Finlay Hall at the start of the semester.
According to the Coalition’s mission statement, “The Diversity Action Coalition seeks to make Fordham a more inclusive environment for all students. We will promote in all our actions greater acceptance and understanding of diversity in all of its forms.”
