In a room filled with other women of color at Brigham Young University, Belgica Alvarez realized she had stopped noticing how often she’s surrounded by white people.
Students who have joined the Provo school’s new Women of Color club, which began meeting last fall, say it has given minority students an “empowering” space to talk about the unique challenges they face on a campus that is 82 percent white.
At the same time, the university’s Idaho campus shut down its similar cultural associations in favor of academic societies, which focus on education. This means that where there was once a Mexican Cultural Association for students that shared that heritage, there is now a Spanish Language Interpreter Society focused primarily on learning goals.