Students at California Polytechnic State University are calling on the school to allocate more than $140,000 toward “marginalized” students on campus, claiming that the school lacks diversity. One student even argues that the university is “really hard for us to be at,” adding that marginalized students are “being pushed out.”
California Polytechnic State University (Cal Poly) students want the school’s administrators to start taking “concrete steps” toward increasing diversity on campus, according a recent report by the Tribune, which adds that the students recommend the school devote a total of $141,000 toward “marginalized students” who are currently enrolled.
“Marginalized” people are typically defined as a member of any minority group in America deemed downtrodden by left-wing activists seeking to defend these individuals. Leftist activists operate under the assumption that members of marginalized groups desire such protection from members outside their group, due to being unable to defend themselves.
Amelia Meyerhoff, who is part of the coalition, is calling on marginalized students “to come together and fight together,” as she claims that Cal Poly has “an issue with racism, sexism, discrimination against trans or non-conforming sexual orientations.”
“This is a university that’s really hard for us to be at,” said student Alejandro Bupara, who identifies as mestizo Latino and queer, “For all of us, when we come here, we are being pushed out from the start.”
The report adds that marginalized students at Cal Poly are allegedly suffering from “a lack of affordable housing, overt racism by white students, sexual violence that disproportionally[sic] victimizes women of color and transgender people, and a seemingly endless flow of microaggressions.”
The student coalition is now calling on the school to “increase monetary support of campus cross cultural centers and departments” and “hire additional advocates to support survivors of sexual violence.”
These changes “would go a long way toward making people feel comfortable here and make a concrete difference in people’s lives,” said Bupara.
A little over one year ago, a photo reportedly emerged of a student wearing “blackface” at a frat-party, along with another student dressed as a “gangster,” wearing a white t-shirt, a backward baseball hat, and jeans cuffed over Nike sneakers.
“[That outfit] is more or less my outfit on any given day,” noted Bupara.
“A lot of us were feeling down,” said the Black Student Union vice president Martina Odusanya to The Tribune, “The larger Cal Poly community didn’t understand our feelings of sadness, feeling oppression and feeling attacked.”
“We’re kind of yelling into the void, and they’re not listening to us,” added Odusanya.
Students are now calling on the university to allocate $50,000 toward the Black Academic Excellence Center and the Dream Center, as well as another $91,000 toward the Gender Equity Center, MultiCultural Center, Pride Center, Ethnic Studies Department, and Women’s & Gender Studies Department.
“Campus leadership appreciates hearing from all aspects of the community when taking these various priorities into account,” said university spokesperson Matt Lazier to the Tribune, adding that the budget “is always a process in which many priorities are considered.”
“We know that not everyone will agree with every budgetary decision,” noted Lazier, “Nevertheless, university leaders are listening.”
You can follow Alana Mastrangelo on Twitter at @ARmastrangelo and on Instagram.
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