Value marginalized voices in our colleges

From our first day of O-Week, we are told Rice actively works to build inclusive and diverse spaces and a “culture of care.” O-Week coordinators assemble their new students into O-Week groups of diverse identities and backgrounds. We view the residential college system as a social equalizer and living space for all students, and espouse that we value inclusivity and diversity. In practice, we often fail to translate these ideals into reality. Whether it’s college auction items for Beer Bike, dorm hall decorations or terrible yaks, a number of issues have arisen that exclude marginalized voices from the community we claim to care so much about. Rice students of marginalized identities occupy this tense space between the rhetoric of inclusivity and the erasure and dismissal of their identities and experiences.