Racial Harmony on Campuses

In response to “Why Don’t the Races Mingle More?” by James O. Freedman, (Commentary, Aug. 28):

Cal State Los Angeles’ own P.R. information lauds it as the “. . . broadest, most (ethnically) diverse, culturally rich student body in the nation.” Yet, as one of the producers of a student video documentary project, I and my colleagues were unable to find a comprehensive program where the university capitalizes on that diversity. We interviewed sources from several areas of administration, faculty and student activities and the consensus was that the university wasn’t doing a substantive job to advocate positive ethnic interaction among students.

As a result most ethnic groups, like Freedman mentions, stick to their own kind. However, Freedman fails to acknowledge that colleges themselves must be extremely pro-active in this process of ethnic awareness to achieve some kind of cultural harmony.

Unstructured intermingling on a college campus isn’t any more productive than in the rest of society. I suppose the administration at CSULA thinks it makes for a glorious cultural event that I get to wait in line at the bookstore along with African-Americans, Latinos and Asian-Americans.

I admit that I don’t personally know what the answer to this problem is. But I’m willing to bet there are plenty of committed educators, students and parents out there who probably have some excellent ideas. As for college administrators wherever your school, give students what they deserve--a true education that will enable us to survive in the world of the future where we can be just people, not a minority or a majority.

RANDALL ISHINO, Monterey Park