Pass

Positive student activism

NIU student groups are doing an excellent job when it comes to raising awareness about campus issues. One of the most recent examples of this was the Feb. 22 diversity march that was composed of students from the Latino Student Alliance and Dream Action NIU. The purpose of the march was to demand a diverse faculty. African-Americans and Hispanics only make up about 5 percent of NIU’s staff and faculty. Demonstrations like these unite the student body in efforts to create positive changes on our campus.

Fail

Community responses to student activism

A handful of community members responded negatively to the diversity march via hostile Facebook comments on Feb. 27 on the Northern Star’s Facebook page. One of the responses dismissed the demonstration, stating the demonstrators ought to stay silent and study instead. Another response also claimed this demonstration was a step in the wrong direction by saying it was dividing people through skin color.

These responses are unfortunate as they exist only to spite social change and stem from a misunderstanding of the diversity march’s goal. The march was not a demonstration against non-minority faculty but a demonstration to display students’ want for an NIU faculty that is just as unique and culturally representative of the students they serve. I urge the community to realize that when students are asking for more diversity, they aren’t asking for discrimination against caucasians but equal representation of all cultural and ethnic backgrounds.