Politics: GOP candidate roundup See page 5
Student teaches American Sign Language See page 18
Hens trounce Tribe See page 28
The University of Delaware’s Independent Newspaper Since 1882
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Tuesday, October 11, 2011 Volume 138, Issue 7
Report criticizes UD for lack of diversity BY PAT GILLESPIE Senior Reporter
Courtesy of University Police
Remnants of the home opener’s tailgate in the parking lot in front of the Fred Rust Ice Arena await cleanup by a bulldozer.
UDPD steps up tailgate regulation BY MARINA KOREN Editor-in-Chief
University police plan to increase law enforcement at all home games this football season, targeting underage drinking and other criminal activity at tailgates with the help of undercover policemen and state agencies. University police Chief Patrick Ogden, who joined the Office of Public Safety two years ago, said increased police presence at home
games this year reflect a renewed commitment to enhancing student safety. In previous years, activity at student tailgates was not as heavily regulated. “Everything that we do revolves around the health and safety of our students,” Ogden said. “We don’t want to give anybody a hard time. I don’t want to ruin anyone’s tailgating or football experience. It’s all in the name of safety.” Ogden said officers’ main
concern is the concentration of thousands of individuals in one area. If an emergency situation were to arise within the crowd, emergency personnel would have difficulty quickly arriving at the site of an incident. University police have also partnered with the Newark Police Department’s Street Crimes Unit, which operates using plainclothes
See TAILGATE page 13
When junior Tayo Lapite arrived on campus two years ago from Nigeria, he felt fooled. Lapite could not visit the university before enrolling, and thought the student body would look like it had been advertised to him—a blend of ethnicities. “I wasn’t able to come here for like Delaworld or a tour, so I was based on pictures,” Lapite said. “On UD’s website it says that it’s diverse. They have like a picture that picked one black person, one Chinese or something and made it look so diverse. But when I came here, it was a different story.” Lapite is not alone in his judgment. The university has historically admitted a largely white student body, and a recent accreditation report expressed concern about an absence of diversity. The Middle States Commission on Higher Education, a nonprofit organization whose evaluations can be used to determine if a school can receive federal funding, recommended in a July report that the university seek plans to improve diversity within the student body. It also expressed concern about the “worrisome” graduation rates of minority students. “This does feel like a very white campus,” university Provost Tom Apple said. “It was clear obviously
to our visiting committee that came in and looked at us, that we’re still not very diverse, so we have a long way to go.” Last year, the student body consisted of 77 percent white students, 5 percent black students and 5 percent Hispanic students, with the remaining portion constituting several other ethnicities, according to the university’s Office of Institutional Research. Apple said the university has developed multiple initiatives to improve diversity on campus, such as the formation of a Diversity and Equity Commission in 2009, to better represent minority groups on campus. One such goal is a faculty “hiring cluster,” which Apple said will bring in faculty members specializing in areas of diversity, like sociology. He said the hires may not be exclusive to minorities, but believes diversity experts usually are people in minority groups. He said many faculty members and departments seem motivated to participate in the initiative. “What’s nice is I see a lot of energy on campus and a lot of people really devoted to [improving diversity] and really dedicated to this,” Apple said. The Middle States report evaluated several aspects of the university, including the university’s “Path to Prominence” strategic
See DIVERSITY page 11
Ugandan woman shares story of escape from brutal civil war BY CHELSEA HOLLOWELL Staff Reporter
After rebels abducted Ayaa Grace’s husband in northern Uganda, she was left with her six children and no means of transportation or method of escape for four years. “I really had just had a small young baby who I had to carry on my back before the umbilical cord cut off,” Grace said. “We had to sleep under the bush for about a week without any food, without
1 News
anything.” Grace, who was invited to speak Wednesday night in Brown Laboratory on behalf of a joint effort between the student organization Uganda Untold, the Department of Black American Studies and various other groups, recalled a story of war, poverty and hope as she lived it in Uganda. Grace said she lived in northern Uganda until the civil war’s eruption in 1993. The Ugandan government has fought a brutal war with two main rebel
14 Editorial
15 Opinion
groups, the Lord’s Resistance Army and the Allied Democratic Forces. The war, specifically the actions of the LRA, sparked the creation of the 2003 documentary Invisible Children. According to Grace, many others fled as well, sleeping under bushes and trying to avoid capture by the rebels, deprived of food. She said that Uganda as a whole has been devastated by the war, and that children in
See UGANDA page 12
17 Mosaic
THE REVIEW/Amelia Wang
Ayaa Grace discussed Uganda’s civil war Wednesday in Brown Laboratory.
21 Day Trippin’
27 Classifieds
28 Sports