Rumors have spread about the black population being the reason for all the attention. Yet, Hubbard Hall isn’t the only hall that has a reputation and black students don’t even make up half of the hall’s population. So, why has Hubbard been painted brown?

The policy by which students are placed into residence halls involves students requesting the hall that they want to live in. Everyone is given a first, second, and third choice, where in most cases the first or second choice is usually honored. Our campus also offers Residential Colleges, where students are assigned living spaces according to their major. Housing Director Angela Brown says, “The Housing Offices have no idea what ethnicity a student is when they apply for housing.”

The problem, however, arises when of the fifteen residence halls on our vast campus, one of them has a minority population that seems to be spilling over. While halls in West Circle, are thirsting for a proportionate amount of minority students. Or are they? Mechanical Engineering major, Tony Davis, who lives in Campbell Hall, says, [Although] there are more [black students] than last year, there aren’t that many. Davis later added, “I think that if West Circle was more diverse half would appreciate it and the other half wouldn’t.”

It is a completely understandable argument that students generally end up where they have requested to live in the first place. Although that rationale is understandable, how logical is it? Could it really be true that an overwhelming percentage of all minority students that live on campus opt to live in one of the fifteen residence halls that are offered? At a recent Hubbard Black Caucus meeting, the question of whether or not living in Hubbard was an act of free will or coincidence was posed to Hubbard residents. The majority of students claimed to have heard from upperclassmen and family members that, Hubbard is the “hot spot” and “ if you want to go where all the black people are, go to Hubbard.” Business sophomore and Hubbard Hall resident Calvin McDaniel says, “As a returning student I requested to live in Hubbard Hall because that is where all my friends requested to live. Everybody wants to be around people they are comfortable with.”

McDaniel like many others are choosing comfort over diversity. Of the nearly eleven hundred students that live in Hubbard Hall, thirty-seven percent are black. Who knows, since ethnicity isn’t acquired when students apply for housing maybe in five years the percentage will skyrocket and Hubbard will be primarily concentrated with black students. Or perhaps, the university will start practicing diversity instead of just preaching about it.

What measures are being taken to encourage students to venture outside of their comfort zones? Does the University even recognize the relevance of this concern? As a student of color how does this make you feel? Who is to blame, housing officials or the students who have no desire to diversify? Students that come to Michigan State University who have never experienced true diversity are being shortchanged in a process as small as finding a place to live on campus. Someone needs to make the first move, before the divide becomes greater.

Ashley Jenkins

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