Brown University will host a series of racially segregated lunches over the course of the semester to help graduate students of color settle into the university.
The RESET Series, as reported by The College Fix, began last semester to increase minority student participation and retention rates.
The lunchtime discussions, which began again in February, focus on topics selected by new graduate students of color based on a survey they took last summer about some of their concerns with the graduate school.
Arjee Restar, a graduate student who sits on the Diversity Advisory Board, said the “lack of events that are centered around students of color” has led to lower participation rates in the past.
“We were trying to address that by creating specific events that celebrate individuals of color,” Ms. Restar told the Brown Daily Herald, adding that the board designed these events to “motivate students of color, including trans and queer students of color.”
Past and future RESET Series discussions include “Trans and Gender Non-Conforming Caucus,” “Men of Color Discussion,” “Womyn of Color” and “LGBTQ Caucus,” according to the university’s website.
These aren’t the only racially segregated discussion groups in the works at Brown University.
Last fall, the elite institution of higher learning received a $30,000 grant from the Association of American Colleges and Universities to develop a Truth, Racial Healing and Transformation campus center.
The award will support the creation of two discussion groups — one for black students and the other for Muslim women on campus, the Daily Herald reported.
And Brown isn’t the only college campus where racial segregation is in vogue.
Last year, Harvard University hosted a racially segregated commencement event for black graduate students.
Students at Michigan State University also demanded a no-whites-allowed safe space on campus “for Black students and students of color to organize and do social justice work.” The university did not comply with the demand.
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