Student Union
College Athletes Add to Voices to Those Protesting Injustice
College athletes across the country added their voices to those calling for an end to racial injustice Friday with football players and others marching on campus or stepping away from practices to protest the police shooting of Jacob Blake in Wisconsin.
In Oklahoma, the Sooners football team walked in rows of three to the Unity Garden, where they held a 57-second moment of silence in honor of the 57-year anniversary of the March on Washington and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech.
Assistant coach Dennis Simmons led a prayer before the team returned to its facilities.
"The problems out there are real," said Oklahoma coach Lincoln Riley, who led the march and spoke at the event. "As we talk, as we discuss, we can't come up with a better solution than unity. I just don't know how you have unity and not include yourself and every part of your program in that. So it's a way for us to show that."
Duke athletes gathered on campus Thursday with hundreds of Blue Devils staff, students and coaches in support of the Black Lives Matter movement.
"All the social unrest and the difficulties that we face day-to-day living this day and time — you're working with young people, and you want them to feel hope for the future and excited," Duke football coach David Cutcliffe said. "This shouldn't be a troubling time for college-age persons."
'We are committed to change'
Members of the Baylor football team marched around campus Friday.
The Ole Miss football team decided not to take to the practice field Friday after a similar demonstration a day earlier at Mississippi State.
Ole Miss players marched from the campus to the Oxford Square.
"As the Ole Miss football family, we are committed to change," the players said in a statement distributed by the university. "Police brutality and other injustices occurring across our nation have to end, and our team stands united to embrace our diversity and promote a culture of peace, equality and understanding. Regardless of our backgrounds, we all need to listen to each other and learn to respect and love our differences."
On Thursday, Mississippi State went to Unity Park in Starkville instead of practicing.
"Black, brown, blue, whatever, it doesn't matter," senior defensive end and Starkville native Kobe Jones said as players prepared to disperse. "We love you all."
College football joined other boycotts as the NBA saw teams sit out Wednesday and Thursday, not playing their scheduled playoff games. Major League Baseball also had teams do the same as did the National Hockey League. Some NFL teams opted to not practice.
Tennessee athletes planned a march Saturday. Football coach Jeremy Pruitt moved practice so his players could attend.
Tennessee left guard Trey Smith, a preseason All-American, has been sharing information about the march on social media. He said Vols athletes "are calling attention to institutionalized racism, as well as demanding that our school commits to taking action to combat it on their own campus."
"We're going to use our platform to help create change and be at the forefront of it," Pruitt said. "Our players believe in it, our staff believes in it, our administration believes in it. So we're going to continue to support them in this movement, and it's something that we'll continue for years to come."
'It's another pandemic'
South Carolina women's basketball coach Dawn Staley said change is long overdue.
"It's like a disease," she said. "It's another pandemic that's been happening for 400 years and we haven't unearthed the vaccine for it. But we shouldn't stop (trying)."
Blake, who is Black, was shot in the back by police last weekend in Kenosha, Wisconsin. The incident has spurred protests around the nation and professional sports leagues across North America postponed games in response.
Oklahoma coach Riley met with his team Thursday and they decided to do something. He said that as a white man, he was surprised to hear some of the stories from his players about racism they have faced. He feels he has no choice now but to act and help others do the same.
"It's not going to change overnight," he said. "It's about taking positive steps and keeping the faith and let's don't let this be a thing that divides us even further. Why can't this be the thing that brings us all even more together?"
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- By VOA News
Michigan State international students get their own space
Michigan State University in East Lansing, Michigan, is setting aside a space in the International Center for international students.
Nidal Dajani, vice president of the school's International Student Association, said that the club plans to use the space to host events and hopes to collaborate with other student groups.
- By Dylan Ebs
International students find community during Pride Month
For LGBTQ+ international students, Pride Month, observed in June, is a unique time to reflect.
They hold on to multiple identities — both their LGBTQ+ identity and their cultural background — but coming to terms with them is not always easy.
For graduate student David Zhou, these identities can feel conflicting as transgender rights in China remain a controversial issue and spaces for LGBTQ people close. Zhou, 25, is transgender and pursuing an education in the STEM field at an urban university in the Midwestern United States.
VOA is using a pseudonym for Zhou’s first name and is not naming his university to protect his identity due to safety concerns back home in China. Zhou is not open about his transgender identity to his family.
During Pride Month, Zhou said he attended multiple LGBTQ+ events in his community and is surrounded by a supportive group of LGBTQ+ students who can relate to his experiences. But he’s not open about his identity to everyone on campus and said he doesn’t disclose his preferred pronouns to everyone to avoid transphobic comments.
“I feel like I have to make some judgments of the character of that person to see if they’re a good person to disclose [my identity] to,” Zhou said.
Zhou’s Pride Month celebrations included attending local markets with LGBTQ+ vendors and hanging out with his LGBTQ+ friends.
“They normalized being trans and for a long time I feel like trans identity is, should I say a vulnerability, brings me fear and worrying about discrimination, but having those events are helpful because it allowed me to see that queer people could just [live] openly,” he said.
At social events where few international students are present, Zhou said it can be tough to fit in.
“There's a lot of times like when they were talking about things I kind of, don't really understand, mostly because I kind of lack some background experience or knowledge,” he said.
Zhou said he is not aware of specific groups for LGBTQ+ international students at his university, but said international students are more prevalent in graduate programs and therefore find representation in organizations for LGBTQ+ graduate students.
In China, transgender individuals must obtain consent from an “immediate family member,” even for adults hoping to transition, which critics say limits the autonomy of transgender individuals while supporters say the policy protects doctors from violence by upset parents.
Struby Struble, a former coordinator of the University of Missouri LGBTQ+ Resource Center, told NAFSA: Association of International Educators in 2015 that LGBTQ+ international students face a “double barrier” on campus.
“With their international student friends, they feel isolated because they’re the LGBT one,” she said. “But then among the LGBT students on campus, they feel isolated because they’re the international one.”
Nick Martin, associate director of the Q Center, Binghamton University’s LGBTQ+ student support office, said when international students tour the center, there’s often a sense of hesitation as they enter a type of space that may not be present in their home country.
“I compare that to a year in after they've come into the space, they've again, maybe come to some of our events, they've got more connected,” he said.
Martin said graduate students have a unique interest in the Q Center as they may use the office for research and advocacy purposes that align with their studies.
“For older students, there may be hesitancy in a different way, but I think it's more in the vein of they want to do some of the advocacy work,” he said.
Martin said he thinks about how both his office and BU’s international student office can support students who come from countries with few — if any — protections for LGBTQ+ individuals.
“It's been a learning process of what those students really need, but I think I've kind of learned that a lot of students are just looking for the safe space that we offer,” Martin said.
- By VOA News
International students discuss US campus culture shock
International students at De Anza College in Cupertino, California, talked about culture shock in an article in La Voz News, the student newspaper.
"It felt like a major culture shock. Everything was so different, from academics to mannerism," said a student from Mexico.
Read the full story here.
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