Diversity, responsibility, and a healthy campus climate

Students, staff, and faculty cooperate across groups to raise awareness

By Ashley Klann
Editor-in-Chief

Clark is an institution that prides itself on being open-minded, liberal, and actively engaged in serious discussion. While you’d be hard pressed to find someone who disagreed that diversity is an important issue,

Director of Graduate Studies in English, SunHee Gertz. Photo courtesy of clarku.edu

Clark’s practices in this area have fallen into what the Diversity Task force calls “benign neglect.”

Sure, you hear a few words about it during Week One, but diversity is something few contemplate post-orientation. Every year the international flags go up for Gala, and we’re all reminded that this topic is paramount, but what are students really doing to promote diversity, responsibility, and a healthy campus climate?

Two sophomore students, grad students, and a slew of faculty and staff members from various departments have pooled their efforts to raise awareness about diversity at Clark.

“Take something as simple and specific as majors,” said Taskforce member Maya Baum. “There’s no major that focuses on diversity. You can go your whole time here and not deal with it. Diversity can be incorporated into every subject taught at Clark. It should be a part of the discussion. It’s something we should have here.”

The Diversity Taskforce has been holding meetings with various committees and departments since November to sort out its objectives. Spearheading the effort is Professor of English and Director of Graduate Studies in English, SunHee Gertz, and sophomores Maya Baum and Hannah Yukon.

Tennis royalty comes to Worcester

DCU Center hosts U.S. vs Belarus Fed Cup tie match

By Dana Ferranti
Contributing Writer

It’s all a tad bit surreal. What are eight professional tennis players (including four Grand Slam champions) doing coming to Worcester to play a tournament? Seriously, how could this be?

Every person I posed this question to had as little a clue as I did on how or why Worcester was chosen to be the site of the United States vs. Belarus Fed Cup tie. We were all just very happy it happened.

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The Fed Cup is women’s tennis’ analog to soccer’s World Cup. There are a few differences, namely that it happens annually, has a confusing format, and doesn’t tend to start riots. But the basic idea is the same: one country’s best tennis players play against other countries’ best players to see who has the best team. In this particular match, the U.S. was up against Belarus.  The winner of the match would move on to the World Group II playoffs where they would have a chance to get into the World Group for 2013.  If they get into the World Group, they then have a chance to win the Fed Cup in 2013.  Like I said, confusing format.  The important thing to remember is the winner of the U.S. vs. Belarus tie (they call it a “tie” for some reason) is one step closer to winning the Fed Cup.

In a world of abundance

How wasting food on campus affects people everywhere

By Shalmali Ghate
Contributing Writer

During Diwali, the festival of lights in India, scores of sweets and treats are accumulated by children in the area. However, they always wind up with an overabundance of sweets, causing mothers to force their children to eat

Photo courtesy of sustainability.temple.edu

them all in order to avoid wasting food. When my family and I came up with ideas to eliminate the sweets after the festival, my grandmother would tell stories about different ways in which God punishes those who waste food.

During my senior year of high school, I found a grand solution to escape from eating the infinite stock of desserts by taking them to a nearby orphanage. While distributing them and feeling very happy about not having to eat them anymore, a curious thing happened. Some kids came up and asked me if there were more left! Some others told me that the sweets were the most delicious ones they had ever eaten, and that they would never forget me. A bit perplexed, I checked my bag of sweets to verify that they were the same ones from home. When I confirmed they were, my mind felt guilty about the misjudgment I had made about those sweets for the past fifteen years.

In contrast, on my first day in the Clark University cafeteria, I witnessed heaps of food being thrown into the garbage without a second thought about waste. I find it abhorrent that some people are dying from starvation and others have an abundance of food which they throw away. As I mulled this over, a boy sitting next to me began a conversation about how he didn’t have enough money to pay for tuition, while he got ready to throw away three full plates of food and leave. It is striking how wasteful people can be even when they know what it feels like to be lacking something.