CalSERVE Senator Wendy Pacheco introduced the bill Sept. 25 to address cultural insensitivity on campus after the campus fraternity Delta Chi hosted a quinceanera-themed party Sept. 21.

The bill, SB 16, was discussed at Monday’s external committee meeting, where members of both the multicultural and Greek communities gathered to discuss concerns about Delta Chi’s party.

Many members of the campus Latino community said at the meeting that they were upset by party’s theme, which they claimed appropriated Latino culture and mocked Mexican traditions. Members of the Greek community at the committee meeting recognized the concerns about Delta Chi’s behavior.

The bill was amended significantly during the committee meeting after students in the Greek community raised concerns about what they said was harsh language in the bill. Student Action Senator Lauren Week, who is in a sorority, said she felt she was “being attacked” by the language of the bill.

Interfraternity Council President Andrey Kisel also emphasized at the meeting that the bill’s language was especially harsh toward the Greek community.

The amended version of the bill was altered to reflect these concerns and notes that “this incident (at Delta Chi) is not reflective of the individual sentiment of each individual in the Greek community.”

The bill’s title was changed from “A Bill to Censure the Inter-Fraternity Council (IFC) for the Appropriate of Latin@/Xican@ Culture” to “A Bill Condemning the Negligence of Cultural Awareness within the Inter-Fraternity Council (IFC).”

The amended bill addresses more specifically what the ASUC believes it and the Greek community should do to make the Greek community a more “culturally aware body.” According to the bill, Delta Chi will be asked to write a public apology to the Xican@ and Latin@ community, and “cultural awareness training (will) be urged by ASUC for all student organizations on campus.”

The bill calls for the implementation of additional training programs and provisions within the Greek community to increase cultural sensitivity as well as communication and collaboration between the IFC and the UC Berkeley LEAD Center to raise cultural awareness.

“This bill is not about communities of color versus the greek community,” Pacheco said in a statement. “Instead this is the start of a conversation and hopefully a partnership between both communities to not only address the issue at hand but also to create a safe campus environment for everyone.”

Kisel echoed Pacheco’s sentiment that both communities should work together to address the incident at Delta Chi.

“(We) agree that what happened is major issue,” Kisel said. “We don’t want this to be a battle between any two communities.”

After a short senate meeting Wednesday, SB 16 passed without discussion.

“I wasn’t that surprised that it passed, only because there had been a considerable amount of working together with the Greek community and the senators that represent (it),” Pacheco said after the meeting.

Jennie Yoon is the lead student government reporter. Contact her at jyoon@dailycal.org and follow her on Twitter @jennieyoon_.

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The offensive quinceanera-themed party thrown by the Delta Chi fraternity on the night of Sept. 21 is a perfect example of this confusion. The party, the impetus of a recently introduced ASUC Senate bill, was defended by Delta Chi’s president, Cody Kermanian, as never beginning with “the intention to marginalize.”

As evidenced by his remarks, Kermanian is sadly missing the point.

It’s reassuring to hear that Kermanian and the fraternity did not intend to alienate or insult Hispanic students on campus, but the problem with the party was not that it was conducted with malicious intent; the trouble is with the careless reappropriation of an important Hispanic cultural ritual for the purposes of throwing a party.

The bill, sponsored by CalSERVE Senator Wendy Pacheco, places the party squarely in the context of other offensive events that have occurred in Greek communities on American college campuses. While Delta Chi’s quinceanera party did not reach the levels of UC San Diego’s infamous Compton Cookout or a gang-themed party at Dartmouth College (where partygoers dressed up like Bloods and Crips), it is symptomatic of a troublesome trend in Greek party culture across the country.

There are productive measures outlined in the bill to address this trend. It calls for “intent versus impact” training, and it also asks Delta Chi to issue a public apology for throwing the party. However, the bill also has its flaws.

The bill rightfully recalls the incident last semester in which the Theta Delta Chi fraternity hung a figure that looked similar to a black male out of its window for Halloween — directly across from the African American theme floor in Unit 1.

However, the bill mentions that in spite of an ASUC bill that required “mandatory racial sensitivity” training after the incident, “there have been no updates on the efforts for mandatory racial sensitivity curriculum.”

In order for the Greek system to adequately implement these protocols, the ASUC needs to actively enforce the reforms they demand the Greek system take on. Otherwise, the changes necessary to effect a culture shift will have no incentive to be taken seriously.

Furthermore, cultural reappropriation and racial insensitivity are not exclusively qualities of the Greek system. Co-op parties and student group events are often guilty of the same kind of ignorance.

But Delta Chi’s failure to consider the consequences of its actions or the reasons behind those consequences reflect an unaware attitude that seems particularly prevalent within the Greek community.

Hopefully, after this instance, the necessary changes will be adopted, and the Greek community made more culturally aware.

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Kore Chan/Staff

A quinceanera-themed party hosted by Delta Chi on Sept. 21 has been met with controversy by students of color and has prompted the introduction of an ASUC Senate bill condemning the event.

Many students criticized the party as an act of cultural appropriation of Latino culture. The bill, SB 16, calls for the ASUC to “condemn culturally appropriated theme parties” and urges the university to implement a racial sensitivity curriculum for the Greek community.

The bill also asks Delta Chi to write a public apology to the campus Latino community for appropriating its cultural traditions and reproducing cultural stereotypes for entertainment purposes.

According to SB 16, authored by CalSERVE Senator Wendy Pacheco, some party attendees were dressed in attire “reflective of ‘cholos.’ ”

“For people in the Mexican community, quinceaneras are usually for young women who transition from being a girl into a woman,” Pacheco said. “That’s very important in our community, and for someone to take that and turn it into a party scene and dress up with sombreros and mustaches and reflect those stereotypes of what Mexican culture is is not OK.”

Members of the fraternity, however, say there was no ill intent behind the party or its theme, which Delta Chi President Cody Kermanian said was suggested by Mexican members of the fraternity.

“A lot of the rhetoric in the bill assumes what our thoughts were without even talking to us about it,” Kermanian said. “The intention was never to marginalize, and it never has been nor will be.”

Student Action Senator Liza Raffi, who is a member of the Greek community, was in attendance at the party. She said her costume and the costumes of friends were not meant to mock Latino culture.

“If there were derogatory costumes there, I did not see them, but I understand that everyone’s definition of offensive is different,” Raffi said. “I now understand that the idea of a fiesta plays into larger concern of cultural appropriation that has history stretching beyond the party.”

According to Dustin Page, a LEAD Center coordinator for fraternity and sorority advising and leadership development, fraternity chapters must register social events through their respective councils, which then share the events with the LEAD Center for review. The LEAD Center is a unit of the ASUC Auxiliary in student affairs, and it advises CalGreeks as well as other student organizations.

Page said that because Delta Chi’s event was not registered with the Interfraternity Council, the LEAD Center had no prior knowledge of it.

The party at Delta Chi is part of a larger pattern of cultural appropriation on campus, said David Jaramillo, a sponsor of the bill and a member of a campus Latino fraternity, Lambda Upsilon Lambda.

“We are a part of CalGreeks, and we feel very disappointed in the fact that the Greek community is continuously perpetrating acts of cultural insensitivity and racism,” Jaramillo said.

Last year, another campus fraternity faced condemnation from the ASUC Senate. The fraternity, Theta Delta Chi, was accused of racism after hanging a figure outside of its house during Halloween. Although the fraternity claimed the figure was a zombie, others said the decoration resembled a lynching. In response, the senate approved a bill that urged the campus and the Interfraternity Council to hold Theta Delta Chi “responsible for reckless disregard of the risk of terrorizing the campus community.”

SB 16 also includes language referencing the “Compton Cookout,” an event hosted by a UC San Diego fraternity stereotyping black culture that garnered national attention.

External Affairs Vice President Safeena Mecklai, however, who is an active member of the Greek community, said Delta Chi’s party cannot be compared to the Compton Cookout. She said the bill uses examples of racial insensitivity from other schools to villainize the Greek community.

“Cultural appropriation is a problem across campus, not just the Greek community,” Mecklai said. “I think it would be more constructive to look at the climate of the entire campus.”

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Taryn Erhardt/Senior Staff

Following an over four-hour long discussion, the ASUC senate chose Student Action Senator Christine Yun as a new representative on the board responsible for overseeing income-producing assets of the ASUC.

At the last senate meeting of the year, junior James Ephrati was brought in — nominated by the Commercial and Student Services Board undergraduate representative selection committee — to be approved by the senate. But after heavy questioning, the senate moved to call in two other candidates for a second interview, leading to a heated discussion by the senators.

The Commercial and Student Services Board — formerly the Store Operations Board — is composed of students, faculty and staff. The board manages ASUC commercial activities like the Cal Student Store.

Both sophomore Michelle Nacouzi — another candidate for the position —  and Yun were brought in to be questioned by the senate as to why they would make good representatives.

SQUELCH! senator Noah Ickowitz — who was a main proponent of delaying the decision in order to find an excellent candidate — said choosing the student was a big decision because the entire senate previously used to make decisions now allocated to only a few representatives.

The senate attempted to vote for each of the three candidates at various points during the meeting, but none received the necessary 14 votes — two-thirds of the senate body mandated by the bylaws — to become the next representative. Senators repeatedly asked if those senators who voted no would be willing to change their votes.

ASUC President Vishalli Loomba said bringing in all the candidates repeated the process that the committee went through last year and suggested that the senate possibly disband committees in the future.

In an informal poll where the senators were asked to rank the candidates in order of preference, Nacouzi received the most first-place votes, and Yun received the most second-place votes.

Independent Senator Nairi Shirinian felt the final decision was undemocratic because the majority of senators had voted for Nacouzi in their decision.

“I think 10 people had to compromise tonight because two people didn’t compromise,” she said.

Several of the senators voiced concerns regarding a possible bias — stemming from Ephrati’s affiliation with the fraternity Delta Chi, Nacouzi’s involvement with the Berkeley Student Food Collective and Yun’s party affiliations — that could influence the decisions the candidates would make if appointed.

Student Action senator Aviv Gilboa, another member of the Delta Chi fraternity, denounced the relevance of Ephrati’s membership in his fraternity, saying that he rejected and disrespected the fact that it was brought into the discussion.

In May 2009, the board forgave The Daily Californian a portion of its rent for the office it leases. As a result of that agreement, a nonpolitical student member of the board, currently Hedy Chen, sits on the Daily Cal’s Board of Operations, which has no control over the paper’s editorial content.

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