Lecture sets agenda

IU's black student leaders participated in a dialogue with Indiana State Representative Gregory Porter during the 15th annual Neal-Marshall Lecture in public policy on Friday. The lecture, held in the Grand Hall of the Neal-Marshall Culture Center, focused on the Indiana Black Caucus' legislative agenda for 2003.\nRep. Porter (D-Indianapolis), chair of the Indiana Black Caucus, presented the agenda items and participated in a panel dialogue with the black student leaders afterwards. Porter represents the 96th District, which includes portions of Marion County, and chairs the Indiana House of Education Committee.\nPorter's lecture itself was brief and focused on important items on the Caucus' agenda, such as health care and education. \nPorter also stressed that the future lies in public policy and encouraged the panel members to get involved with what's going on around them. \n"You as young people do have some control, no matter what you might think," Porter said. "If you are not happy with what is going on around you, you have to address it, you have to fight for it, and you can change it. Lobbyists don't drive us, people drive us. Your vote, your phone call, that's who I listen to."\nPorter welcomed questions from the panel, all of whom were eager for Porter's opinions. A wide range of topics were discussed, but the most time was spent addressing affirmative action, the mural in Woodburn Hall and the feeling by the black student body of not being truly heard at IU. \nGraduate student Damon Freeman asked Porter what the Caucus intended to do if affirmative action is abolished following the University of Michigan trial.\n"We are fighting for affirmative action, and it's a big fight, but we will face it if the time comes," Porter said. "We're just waiting to see right now. We have a president who announced that he was against affirmative action on King's birthday, on his birthday, which just shows how hard this fight might be."\nSophomore, Dallas Easton asked Porter how the Caucus feels about the mural depicting the Ku Klux Klan in Woodburn Hall.\nBefore Porter could respond, staff member Mark Bryson quickly interjected from the audience. Bryson helped create the educational video shown to students who have class in Woodburn 100.\n"We feel the video does a good job at explaining the mural and that it would be better not to remove it," Bryson said.\nPorter added that the Caucus actually had discussed the mural and could not agree on an official opinion. He also told Easton that it was a local fight, an IU student's fight. \nEaston, shaking his head, responded. \n"We don't like it," Easton said. "It goes against the University's ethics of not having anything that creates tension amongst its students. IU isn't doing enough about the matter. We aren't being heard. And this isn't just our fight. One black man's fight is all black men's fight when it comes to injustice."\nPorter promised that the Caucus will address the issue at their next meeting.\nConcerns amongst the panel continued to focus on the lack of diversity at IU and the racial issues that are present on campus. \nGraduate student Keon L. Gilbert said, "Diversity is not just a concept, where you simply count the number of minorities at IU. Rather, it is a process where we change our thinking, our ideas about race. Until then, we'll never achieve true diversity."\nGraduate student Byron Craig, added, "There are racial problems on this campus, and the main problem is we don't want to talk about it, we don't want it to exist."\nShrewsberry encouraged the students not to give up and to demand that they be heard. \n"We need to make a list of what we need to achieve on this campus," he said. "We need to not only win the battle but win the war."\nOther topics discussed include the Caucus' plan to eliminate the achievement gap, programs to transition people out of prison, the disproportionate number of minorities in jail, a controversial cartoon in the Indiana Daily Student and rising tuition costs.\nClarence W. Boone, Jr., director of the Neal-Marshall alumni club and assistant alumni director closed the dialogue by presenting Porter and Shrewsberry with honorary certificates.\nSPEA and the Neal-Marshall alumni association sponsor the lecture each year during Black History Month.