I had been making my rounds as a responsible member of the Hong Kong Students' Association last week, attempting to get the word out about our latest event. I was surprised at the number of my friends who questioned or declined my invitation on the basis of "not being from Hong Kong." I felt a little confused at these comments. A gathering of just "people from Hong Kong," I surmise, would be a small, somewhat pitiful group of around fifteen, grumbling about the lack of good Hong Kong food in the Providence area. In other words, we would not exactly be taking advantage of the Brown experience.
What, then, is being a "cultural group" really all about? Isn't it to spread and promote cultural experiences, instead of to immerse a select and exclusive clique in the culture that they are already familiar with?
I would assume that a Brown student should have enough agency and charisma points to be able to organize social get-togethers with peers from the same place of origin and/or language abilities without the aid of being a formalized Undergraduate Council of Students student group. Being a UCS student organization, writing and signing our own constitution as a part of the application process and agreeing not to "discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, age, national or ethnic origin, disability, status as a veteran, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, or sex" implies that we, as student organization leaders, are in a position to be responsible to the student population.
I'm not saying that any groups do violate this area of the UCS constitution, and there are certainly no groups at the Activities Fairs that would stop any student from signing up for their mailing lists, for example. But if students are feeling any degree of symbolic pressure against attending a cultural group's event because of feelings of non-belonging and discomfort, I would assert that student groups need to do a better job at being more welcoming.
Student organizations at Brown are registered with the Student Activities committee of UCS, and are financed by the activities fee in all students' tuition. For Category II and III groups, the Undergraduate Finance Board provides $90 in social funds, and $200 in automatic baseline funds per semester, and the student groups themselves have virtually free reign in deciding how these funds are spent. Category III groups are even able to make presentations at UFB meetings for supplemental event funding, provided that they are events and activities for Brown students. The categories also delineate student groups' privileges to free use of media services, room bookings and funding, among other important aspects of running an organization.
In all matters of equality in these accounts, does it not seem a little unfair if groups receive a similar degree of University support to hold a public lecture series and to hold monthly dinner parties for fifteen members? If some student groups are less proactive than others in reaching out to Brown students at large, and seem to be less inclusive, to the point where membership is based on something like citizenship, should they still have access to the same privileges? After all, if funding comes from a common source to which all students contribute, shouldn't the benefits from these funds, at least in theory, be available to all students?
The UCS Student Activities Committee doesn't yet seem to have holds on community outreach and "openness" requirements for student groups, but perhaps this should be a new area for UCS to assess. Student organizations that require students' funds should be based on positive contributions to the Brown community at large.
Baseline funds and social funds should not be the right of a student group, but only distributed to those who show need. Supplementary funding and recurring annual funds should also be applied for on the basis of need, where student groups should demonstrate to UFB or any other funding office that they will be using these funds to cater to Brown students at large.
Brown students should be able to — and comfortable enough to — let ourselves roam liberally into any cultural show, food-making tutorial or national holiday celebration that we've had the fortune to fund. So throw open your doors, cultural groups and give our student activities fees the multicultural experience they deserve.
Sarah Yu '11 will be crashing a Hanuri party sometime this semester. She can be reached at
xia_yu (at) brown (dot) edu.
