Protesters Demand WSU Increase Cultural Diversity Students Make Demands Of Regents, Rally On Mall, March On President’s Home

In a flourish of activism that hasn’t been seen here in years, about 40 Washington State University students marched into a Board of Regents meeting Friday to appeal for more cultural diversity on campus.

Bearing placards and standing shoulder-to-shoulder in the regents’ meeting room, the students read off a dozen demands that ranged from providing health benefits to domestic partners of homosexual employees to creating a tenure process more friendly to minority faculty.

Petra Guerra, a doctoral student who addressed the board, said the students’ efforts “will only increase if false rhetorical promises and failed proactive approaches continue.”

Future protests could include disruptions during the Nov. 8 Dad’s Weekend or during a home football game, said Carlos Adams, a graduate student.

WSU’s cultural climate has been a source of discontent for years now. But protests on the issue have been sporadic affairs that usually come just in time for students to leave for the summer.

Not this year.

On Monday, Citizens for a Diverse Campus, a group of WSU students, employees and local residents, met with Provost Gretchen Bataille to discuss the tenure denial of an African American faculty member and the recent “black exodus.” An estimated 16 African American staff and faculty have left WSU this fall.

Students rallied Monday on Terrell Mall and marched Wednesday morning to President Sam Smith’s Campus Street home. The group of mostly Hispanic students woke him with a car horn and demanded that, among other things, he raise the percentage of Hispanic students from 3 percent to the statewide average of 15 percent.

A rally on Thursday commemorated the two-year anniversary of the Million Man March on Washington, D.C.

Friday’s protest was among the more tense displays of dissatisfaction, puncturing the hermetically sealed calm that usually prevails over the regents’ meetings.

The students - chanting, “What do we want? Justice! When do we want it? Now!” - were met in the lobby of the Lewis Alumni Center by Gus Kravas, vice president for student affairs, and Ernestine Madison, vice provost for human resources.

“This is an open meeting, and they told us we could have eight people in there,” Guerra said afterward.

All 40 students ended up in the room, standing with signs declaring, “Ask me how I like the climate at WSU” and “Same Sex Benefits. Now!”

But once Adams and Guerra announced their demands, the tension seemed to evaporate.

“I view this to be not a we-they” situation, said Regent Phyllis Campbell, an Asian American who referred to herself as a “Cougar of color.”

“This is certainly something we’re all interested in,” she said.

“I can assure you that there’s no question about the commitment on the part of the regents,” said Regents president Richard Albrecht, cautioning that the students’ concerns have no quick fix.

The overarching air of civility brought a furious response from Micki Archuleta, president of the Graduate and Professional Students Association.

“You guys can’t just talk to them and say, ‘Thank you for talking to us,”’ she shouted at the students after they left the building. “You need to find some way to make Gus (Kravas) empower you and not say, ‘Yeah, yeah’ and pat you on the head and send you away.”

Guerra promised the students that would not be the case.

“It’s our money. It’s our education,” she said.

“And this is the ‘90s and there’s no reason for people like me, who were fighting battles in the ‘70s, to be fighting them 20 years later.”

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color Photo