Campos says part of his group's mission is toestablish a campus-wide presence.
"We try to make sure that we haverepresentatives on every thing that affect thecampus on the whole," Campos says. "I feel we havea lot to contribute and sometimes we don't getlistened to."
Tokens for Change?
Some student group leaders say there arereasons to be wary of these efforts to recruitminorities.
"It's one thing to say that there is lack ofminorities in certain groups. We all have toresponsibility for that," says Monica M. Ramirez'01, who represented RAZA at the AAA-sponsoredpanel discussion. "But I don't want someone to sayto me, 'We need Latinas. Hey, you're a Latina. Whydon't you join?'"
Jason D. Williamson '98, outgoing BSApresident, agrees with Ramirez.
"No one wants to feel like they're only beingapproached because they're black," he says.
"The real question is, once black students arepart of an organization, are they going to feelwelcome there? Or are they going to feel likethey're just there because they're black?"Williamson adds.
Speaking at the panel on extracurricularsegregation, Kevin A. Shapiro '99, editor-in-chiefof the Salient, criticized recruiting as possiblymisdirected.
The goal of student groups should not bediversity but rather bringing together studentswho are interested in some common cause, he says.
"If someone is interested in juggling, then myguess is that they will join the juggling clubregardless of their ethnic or racial backgrounds,"Shapiro says. "To talk about diversity for thesake of diversity...surely we at Harvard can findmore interesting things to talk about."
But Williamson defends the recruiting ofminority students noting that most groups who cometo recruit at BSA meetings--such as UNITE--handleissues that have a direct impact on minoritygroups.
"I don't see them as just trying to getminorities, but they're trying to get people whowould have an interest in their activities,"Williamson says. "If you're trying to foster arelationship between groups of students, it'simportant to have interaction between the groups."
Groups like AAA and RAZA say, if nothing else,recruiting their members shows that an awarenessof their organizations and the importance of theirviews exists.
And while Campos acknowledges the fear thatstudent groups will set up a quota system fortheir membership, he says he would prefer toremain idealistic.
"I would hope that they are trying to be morerepresentative. I think they really want to hearwhat underrepresented groups say," Campos says."It's our responsibility to send people who arevocal in addressing our issues instead of sendingpeople who will stay silent, as part of a diversefacade."