The College of Communication Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Committee held its first student meeting Tuesday to discuss the future of DEI as a student-led organization and get student input on concerns regarding diversity, equity and inclusion in COM.
DEI Committee members Jennifer Guneratne, a COM undergraduate advisor, Anne Donohue, a professor of journalism and Ermolande Jean-Simon, the COM marketing and events specialist, led the discussion by asking the 20 students in attendance to introduce themselves and explain their experiences in COM regarding diversity.
Most students reported that COM professors lack ethnic diversity and they feel “unheard” in their classes because they can’t relate to their professors.
Bejeana Breneville, a recent advertising alumnus and future graduate student, said to the group that it’s been hard for her to find people like her in the COM faculty.
“I kind of forced myself to find [the diversity] in COM,” Breneville said.
Jodi Luber, a DEI Committee member and associate professor of film and television, said students often tell her that lack of diversity in the faculty causes them to change the way they present themselves to communicate with white professors.
“[They are] code-switching, talking in different tongues, having to speak ‘white’, having to speak in a different way when they talk to professors,” Luber said.
The students in attendance agreed that the DEI should focus its efforts on educating both faculty and students on diversity, equity and inclusion, in order to create the atmosphere students of different cultures need to learn and prosper through COM.
One issue raised by several students including Breneville was the frequency of microaggressions, or unintentional derogatory or prejudiced comments, by professors in COM classes.
“I think it’s important to talk about microaggressions that faculty don’t realize they’re doing,” Breneville said.
Nyema Wilson, a junior in COM, said she has found COM to be less diverse than she thought it would be.
“One thing that I was really excited about was how BU boasted about its diversity and its inclusion of different cultures and of people from different backgrounds,” Wilson said. “I was a little saddened to find sometimes that I was the only one of three people of color in my classes or the only African American female in my class.”
After identifying COM’s lack of diversity and issue with inclusion, the students proposed initiatives they would like to see taken by the DEI to help move towards a more inclusive and equitable college.
“As a person of color sometimes it is hard to connect with your professor or speak with them about certain topics that you’re interested in,” Wilson said.
The attendees proposed an alumni-student mentorship program as a possible solution for this issue.
“Having a mentor whose already in that next place,” Wilson said, “who’s walked the exact same path that you have and is already in the job that you want would be really, really nice for students who come from a diverse background to be able to connect with professionals that are already there.”
