Students, community search for solution

Financial sanctions, open dialogue are among possible courses of action

AsiaXpress.com staff reports

Feb. 25, 200

DENVER – Financial sanctions and open dialogue with CU-Boulder were among the solutions presented during the meeting to address Max Karson’s column Feb. 22 at the University of Denver.

More than 60 students and community members attended the three-hour meeting, which provided an open forum to discuss reactions and potential measures to respond to the column.

“For a lack of better words, I was pissed,” said Chris Choe, president of the Korean-American Students at Boulder. “I don't see any joking in saying that ‘the hunt will begin.’ What is this? They're going to meet on Farrand Field and hog tie us? Honestly, that's a threat and I don't see why it's being just dismissed and marginalized as being satirical.”

Student leaders from Boulder said that they wanted to have an open meeting with the school’s administration. They said they only had a last-minute, closed-door meeting with the chancellor, the dean and the provost the day before.

“The only contact we had was an e-mail that was sent two hours before the meeting,” said Amie Ha, a representative from the Vietnamese Student Association at Boulder. “ … We want to see a public address to have these people come to our student organizations, to have these people come to our student unions, and to publicly apologize and not find meetings in which they see only a limited number of student leaders.”

Others questioned the legality of printing the column in the school’s paper. One member of the audience brought up Title VI, section 601 of the Civil Rights Act, which states, “No person in the United States shall, on the ground of race, color, or national origin, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance.”

Some said that they should bring the community’s reactions to the attention of the newspaper’s advertisers and the school’s donors.

“We need to hit where it really hurts,” said Ding-Wen Hsu, co-founder of the Colorado Dragon Boat Festival. “We need to take action against the university. We need to talk to people who are giving money to the university. Not just giving to the newspaper, but to the university.”

While others wanted to see increased funding go to student organizations and the school’s multicultural center.

“What you need to do is look at and demand that the chancellor is saying that we want to address these issues and you can't address them rhetorically,” said Tracey Peters, associate director of DU’s Center for Multicultural Excellence. “You can't just talk about it – you have to put the money where your mouth is.”

Whatever steps the community chooses to follow, they agreed that it is something that needs to be followed through.

“Whatever response we do, we have to remember we can't give up too easily,” said Karl Chen, a member of the Asian Pacific Development Center. “And look for big solutions within a year or five years.”