"While Cultural Rhythms is a great celebrationof diversity on campus, I do think there arethings that could be done to enhance or increasethe educational experience it provides," saysAlvin R. Cabrera '00, this year's SACrepresentative from the Philippine Forum.

In a Crimson op-ed published the week afterthis year's Cultural Rhythms, Fowler and co-authorKamil E. Redmond '00 said the festival exoticizesthe cultures it portrays by making ethnictraditions seem like amusing novelties withoutexplaining how these practices fit into theirperformers' complex, modern identities.

At the March meeting held to discuss thefestival, students suggested providing moreinformation about each of the acts during theperformance to help remedy this problem.

Coleman argues that the Foundation alreadyprovides information about the acts in a program.

"You can't educate everyone about everything inthe space of two hours," Coleman says.

Redmond, who is also vice president of theUndergraduate Council, says the event may be fun,but its brochure does not make a big enoughimpact.

"That brochure is easily thrown away," shesays. "The brochure is nice but I don't thinkthat's an excuse for not presenting theinformation the right way."

Missing Pieces?

While the Foundation includes representativesfrom 31 cultural groups, all of thoseorganizations are devoted to dealing with issuesof race or religion. SAC does not include studentswho do not associate themselves with specificethnic groups.

Although Counter points to the Irish, Italian,Polish, Scandanavian and Ukranian groups on SAC asexamples of white student participation in theFoundation, Fowler contends that not all studentsfind a place in such organizations.

"What that does is it pushes most whites to theside and says this is not something you have to beconcerned about," Fowler says. "This is for'ethnic people.'"

And Tan, who has also served as the secretaryof the Bisexual, Gay, Lesbian, Transgender andSupporters' Alliance (BGLTSA), says he thinksplanning events which address issues involvingrace and homosexuality is not a priority for theFoundation.

"It would be wonderful if the Foundationattempted to do some more work thinking throughthe intersections of race, class, gender and soon," Tan says.

Tan requested $300 from the Foundation topartially fund a BGLTSA event, the Queers of ColorPerform-A-Rama, intended to "talk about homophobiain communities of color [and] racism in the queercommunity."

After a lengthy debate, the SAC approved thegrant request for the event, which would have beenhosted by New York University Professor Jose Munozand featured performances with racial themes.