David Lucero, a University of Vermont senior, has been sent to New York City schools in efforts to recruit minority students into the environmental studies field at UVM. Although his efforts are admirable, the point is moot.
UVM is tucked away in the rural corners of Burlington, Vermont sitting across from Lake Champlain. One of the university’s most popular fields is, without a doubt, environmental studies. Lucero, a New York City native himself, is one of the few urban-bred minority students in the program. According to the New York Times, last year’s graduating class of the environmental school had 27 minority students from a class of about 400 students.
According to the Urban Dictionary, UVM students are made up of two things - the wannabe Vermonters and the trustafarians. The wannabes are the out-of-staters who are trying hard to be the Birkenstock-wearing hippies they think Vermonters are. The trustafarians, on the other hand, are the rich, white Vermont pot-smoking natives who also want to be hippies. That's it - there isn't much else on campus. See where I’m going with this?
As most predominantly white universities are trying desperately to fill their racial quotas, it’s apparent that UVM is doing the same. These schools are constantly put under scrutiny for not having enough diversity on campus but is this really the way to go?
First off, after growing up in an urban community, most students would never think twice about going off to East Bumble for college. Secondly, Lucero is going into big cities to look for students interested in environmental studies. Let’s get serious – the most exposure to nature these kids have gotten was probably their fourth grade field trip to Central Park.
Suppose (for a very hot second) Lucero succeeds in recruiting students from urban settings into the program, if most students go back home after graduation, what will they do with those degrees in cities? Nothing! I don't know too many NY-based farmers or environmentalists, just the thought of it is a complete contradiction.
I think UVM better rethink their recruiting strategy and instead of pushing minority students into useless majors, they try showing students everything the university has to offer.
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A friend of mine ran across your post and forwarded it to me. I do agree for the most part. Schools are trying very hard to recruit minorities into environmental sciences. And a major catalyst for the heavy diversification of minorities in the field can be attributed to the current inequality of environmental resources. You can look at most stats and GIS spatial analysis maps and see a link between people of color and sites of environmental degradation (e.g. landfills, brownfields, etc.). Now many argue which came first the chicken or the egg, in other words did minorities move to these places of poor environmental conditions because it held cheaper real estate, or did these land fills move into epicenters of minority dwelling because it was so cheap and politically easy. But my point is that is that it doesn’t matter, these issues of environmental inequality definitely lead to health risks and must be addressed. Now that we understand that minorities are stakeholders in the environment, how will they be educated to take action? Should they study environmental sciences in the city? Well they can if they wish; Universities like NYU offer excellent undergraduate and graduate level studies. But schools like the University of Vermont, for better or worse, is well-known nation wide for their environmental studies at the Rubenstein School of Natural Resources (in UVM). Why not allow minorities to compete with a top tier education? And the education here, especially if you’re from a city like New York, can be used address urban environmental issues. The college even offers courses in urban environmental planning.
And of course Vermont is rural as hell when compared to New York City. Although I struggled coping with the lack of diversity in Vermont, I NEEDED this experience. Like the article says I grew up in Jamaica, NY. What the article didn’t mention was how rough it was for me growing up, and worst of all I thought my life was the norm. I grew up in this bubble where people were either using drugs or handling them. Where gang members weren’t only seen in rap music videos they were seen in my home, they were my friends. The University of Vermont experience opened my eyes to the inequality of the United States of America; the University of Vermont experience gave me the tools to address these inequalities. Posted 07/09/2008 6:01 PMReply