EAST LANSING, Mich. (Michigan News Source) – Michigan State University is telling some of its most identity-driven student groups to change their constitutions and mission statements. As part of a compliance check with federal anti-discrimination laws and changing state and federal regulations concerning DEI (Diversity, Equity and Inclusion), student organizations have been recommended to update their club documents to reflect that anyone can join.
This pertains to the many clubs on campus that have exclusive names to their groups including the ones associated with the Council of Racial and Ethnic Students (CORES). These include the North American Indigenous Student Organization (NAISO), Black Students’ Alliance (BSA), Asian Pacific American Student Organization (APASO), Culturas de las Razas Unidas (CRU), and TransAction MSU among others.
Bureaucracy meets belonging.
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According to the State News, University spokesperson Amber McCann framed it in classic administrative jargon: student organizations must adopt “language that makes it clear all students are permitted to join and/or participate in those organizations” if they want to keep perks like funding, recognition, and the ability to hold events.
MSU Student Affairs met with the student organizations during a meeting last Friday, September 19 to discuss the recommendation to use inclusive language in their constitutions and mission statements.
Groups like Culturas de las Razas Unidas (CRU), which is the “voice of the Hispanic/Latiné community” according to their website, didn’t exactly leap for joy at the directive. President Rafael Gordillo Serrano admitted it was “a tough conversation,” but ultimately, CRU revised its constitution to welcome Hispanic or Latino students and their allies. Gordillo Serrano added, “this language thing, it’s a bigger fight than it seems,” stating that it’s going on all over the country.
Identity, but with an asterisk.
Other organizations, from Her Campus MSU (online magazine and media network aimed primarily at college women) to the North American Indigenous Student Organization, are also eyeing their paperwork nervously. Leaders say they understand the logic, but the exercise feels a little like erasing the very identities that created their communities in the first place. As Mikia Lawrence of Her Campus put it, “It’s almost like we’re masking who we are and what we do to appease other people.”
Compliance nation.
MSU isn’t operating in a vacuum. Across the country, universities are scrubbing DEI initiatives, revamping strategic plans, and making sure their programs don’t run afoul of shifting federal standards. Identity-based clubs are having to decide: do they fight for the right to define themselves and stay exclusive, or tweak a few sentences and live to hold another fundraiser?
