Ryan Jones '91 was an assistant football coach for UNH until March, when he left for a job as a scout for the New York Giants. He says he always tried to be frank with prospective recruits. He told minority student-athletes who wanted to focus just on classes and their sport that they would have a tough time at UNH. "Whether or not they like it, they are thrust into leadership roles," says Jones. Nonetheless, such challenges can be opportunities for growth. Jones describes his experience at UNH as "very, very positive."

Mike Kamuzora, a senior biology major who often finds himself the only black student in class, says that if he misses a class, even a large lecture, everybody knows, because the black kid isn't there. He's become accustomed to people he doesn't know calling him by name -- "Hey, what's up Mike?" And he has been approached so many times by white students who just assume he is an athlete that he now plays along. Despite that, he says being at UNH "is a matter of adjustment. People are people no matter what. You just can't assume every white person is bad or a racist. You have to take one person at a time. I feel, overall, people are pretty nice."

Tito Jackson, former student body president and Black Student Union activist who graduated last year, is quick to discuss frustrations with the administration's slow progress on diversity issues, but equally quick to praise his alma mater.

"If I had to do it all over again, I would do it again," says Jackson, as he sips on a tall hot cocoa in a Starbucks in Brookline, Mass. A pharmaceutical sales representative, Jackson is dressed in a dark suit with a company car parked out front. He says he "grew so much being at UNH. I had to stretch myself and act."

It is admirable that so many minority students view UNH's predominantly white enrollment as a worthy challenge. But even as many relish the committee appointments and the leadership opportunities, they also weary of being called upon so often to lead the charge -- and having the administration react.

Many are quick to point out that the changes on campus this year have come in response to the Black Student Union sit-in. An interim report to the university from the New England Association of Schools and Colleges Commission on Institutions of Higher Education, the region's chief accrediting body, recognizes that impact. "Much of the push for demographic diversity and a more supportive campus climate appears to have come from African American students, who have performed an important service in this regard," the report states.

But is this fair? Or more to the point: Is this a viable strategy for supporting diversity?

Some think not. Elizabeth Cole, associate professor at Northeastern University, who studies the effect of predominantly white campuses on black students, says that to get a minority presence on campus "takes a consistent commitment." While putting students in the role of activist may provide them with valuable leadership experience, Cole says administrative leadership is key. "Students may be pushing the rock up the hill and watching it roll down again," she says. "Without the support of administrators, how will the gains be sustained?"

Leitzel may be building a structure for real change, but creating diversity on a campus like UNH requires a continuous and coordinated effort. OMSA director McGhee says real diversity -- as reflected in numbers, attitude and quality of life -- requires "a five- to 10-year plan."

"It doesn't happen overnight," he says. "It is not something you can accomplish in a year or two; it is not something you can do just focusing on students. It is not something Multicultural Affairs can do on its own. There has to be a commitment from the entire UNH community." ~

Laura Pappano, a writer and journalist, is a visiting scholar at the Murray Research Center at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard.

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