Not Your Token: Culture on Campus

Every August, freshman move-in hits the University of Iowa like a tornado of jam-packed cars and wide-eyed teenagers. Nervous parents squash into tiny elevators. Students jostle precariously stacked carts down narrow hallways in a frenzy. Volunteer upperclassmen wearing black and gold T-shirts smile like caricatures as they hand out informational packets and Hawkeye key chains.

August of 2020 move-in was less like a tornado and more like a cool draft. Only a couple dozen students wearing face masks were allowed inside a residence hall during their pre-assigned time slot. Volunteers stood at least 6 feet away at all times, a role far removed from their usual hands-on approach. Custodial staff wiped down elevator buttons, door handles, and move-in carts several times an hour.

For first-year students of color, the stress of distanced move-in was heightened by the apprehension of a campus where 79% of the student body is white, according to the University’s Admission Office. Cultural centers that usually provide a home away from home for students have been closed for in-person events since spring of 2020. Both cultural centers and multicultural student organizations have relied on virtual events via Zoom to maintain their usual roles of student support and community.

“Iowa is a predominantly white institution, and that was one of my biggest concerns coming here,” said Stephanie Rodriguez, a first-year student who identifies as Latina. “It’s pretty hard adjusting. It’s hard looking at all your classmates and seeing just a whole bunch of white people. When I look at it visually, inherently I already feel uncomfortable.”

Coming from a predominantly white high school, Rodriguez said that she wanted a more diverse and welcoming experience in college. She participated in the Iowa Edge Program her first week at the University, which introduced her to students with similar backgrounds and connected her to cultural resources on campus. She also joined the Unidos Living Learning Community and the Association for Latinos Moving Ahead, both of which have the goals of creating community and providing support for Latinx students at the University of Iowa. All of these resources made Rodriguez feel more comfortable attending a predominantly white institution, she said.

“I was able to get acquainted with all the cultural centers, all those resources,” she said. “Seeing other minority students in the program just made me feel a lot less alone and isolated from the University as a whole. Through those students, I could find out about things that might not be pertaining to the University, like Iowa Student Action.”

Most events hosted by cultural centers have been done virtually through Zoom or social media. Shalisa Gladney, coordinator of the Afro-American Cultural Center, says that social media engagement has grown substantially since she started in her role in October of 2020. Events that are in person follow CDC and University guidelines, requiring masks and social distancing. All four cultural centers have been closed since March of 2020, but this has not stopped first-year students from connecting with these centers during their first few months on campus, Gladney said.

“For students where this is their first year at the University, they’ve never been inside the Afro House,” she said. “All of our programming is done online, but that didn’t stop how we engage with students. So, we had some drop-in hours virtually where they could come and ask questions or meet the students. Also, providing space for students to come and process things if they need to and giving them access to other resources on campus that are outside of the Afro House.”

The Afro-American Cultural Center, known to students as the Afro House, aims to provide a supportive and inclusive space for Black students, allowing them to explore Black identities in the process. In the wake of Black Lives Matter protests last summer and the Derek Chauvin trial last month, the Afro House provides open discussion spaces for students who feel uncomfortable and unsafe, like the Black Student Support Group. Gladney said she encourages students to come to the Afro House with curiosity and an open mind.

“For exploring their own identities, having them think more in depth about where their ancestors are from, how they got there, and really thinking of the ways in which they contribute not just to the University of Iowa or the Iowa City community, but the world,” Gladney said. “And then thinking about exposing them to other identities, especially around other identities across the Black diaspora, having some challenging conversations but also meaningful conversations.”

For many students, college is their first breath of freedom from authority and diversity on a large scale. They leave their parents and enter an unknown world, encountering a diverse spectrum of identities. While learning from people with diverse backgrounds can encourage students to explore their own identity, finding a community of individuals with similar backgrounds and experiences can create a sense of belonging for students, according to Anna Ortiz and Silvia Santos in their study on campus diversity.

Some first-year students have found it more difficult to connect to cultural resources through virtual modes, which has impacted their ability to find community on campus. Fatima Mehmood, a first-year student, said she avoided researching cultural resources on campus because of the pandemic. She said that she knew it would be difficult to get connected and find community at the University due to the virtual limitations. “Just in general, for meeting new people you really have to get yourself involved. And it’s hard to do that, at least now,” she said. “It’s so sad because I want to meet people and make new friends.”

Mehmood said that she wants to be more involved on campus, but the inability to be in person has made her feel uncomfortable reaching out and discovering more cultural organizations. With the hope of a fully in-person semester this upcoming fall, she plans to research cultural student organizations over the summer to feel more connected to the University community. Her current involvement is based on previous knowledge of University organizations.

Having attended events hosted by the Pakistani Student Association, or PSA, while she was in high school, Mehmood knew that she wanted to join PSA before she even stepped foot on campus. Many of her friends who went to her hometown mosque were also involved in Muslim Student Association, so she asked to be added to the organization’s group chat. Despite her attempt at cultural involvement, her student organizations hosted few events, and she said her connection with each organization is minimal because of the pandemic.

Stephanie Rodriguez, first-year student liaison for Association of Latinos Moving Ahead, said that she wishes the University did more to promote cultural resources on campus, especially for first-year students. “If I wasn’t told about these resources through Iowa Edge and my living learning community, I wouldn’t even know where to look,” she said. “The University providing those resources, but also the University promoting those resources – that’s the most important thing.”

The four cultural centers each have around 800 Instagram followers, compared to the University of Iowa’s 88,000 Instagram followers. Although social media engagement with the cultural centers has increased during the pandemic, many students are still unaware of what cultural resources are offered on campus and how to get involved, Rodriguez said. During her training as a University of Iowa Campus Tour Guide, she was shocked to learn that none of her fellow trainees could name the four cultural houses, whereas she could name all of them. She said this is just one example of how the University has failed to promote cultural resources on campus and make them accessible for students.

In an article by The Daily Iowan, University President Bruce Harreld said that he wants his $2.3 million in deferred compensation to go toward relocating the cultural centers from the west side of campus to Hubbard Park in the center of campus. This would make cultural resources more accessible to students, especially first-year students who live in the east side residence halls.

Next semester, freshman move-in may resemble the whirlwind of nervous parents and anxious teenagers that usually strikes campus each August. Cultural resources are planning to be back to hosting in-person events and providing physical community spaces for students from diverse backgrounds. Even so, campus will still look the same to students of color: around 80% of their classmates will be white. To overcome this feeling of alienation, Stephanie Rodriguez recommends that first-year students join student organizations.

“There are so many different things that benefit you when joining an organization. First, you get a community out of it,” she said. “Yes, I miss my family, but I have all these new friends. It’s like building a new family of sorts.”