Open Mic With Mike

Budget woes and the University's plan to weather the economic downturn dominated conversation at Open Mic with Mike on Tuesday, but President Michael Adams took a minute to address racism and the African-American community at the University.
"You are welcome here, and if you are being mistreated in any way there are avenues that I encourage you to seek them out," Adams said in response to a question from Natasha James, a third year management and environmental economics major from Decatur who asked Adams about subtle racism on campus.
Adams said the University is working to increase its diversity through the administration, recruitment and enrollment of African-Americans
Adams said applications from and acceptance of African-American students has increased, with Blacks making up 80 percent of the minorities on campus, .
According to the Office for Institutional Diversity Web site there are 1,800 African-American students at the University. The retention rate is 95 percent for African-American freshmen.
“The people who feel segregated tend to separate themselves, I never feel like I am treated any differently than anybody,” said Angelo Kalevela, a third year Management and Information Systems MIST major from Statesboro.
However, one student said that the problem on campus is not racism but a lack of sensitivity toward the experiences of minority students.
In addition to recruitment efforts, the University has also tried to increase diversity through legal avenues.
"We just went through a lawsuit, which we lost in which we favored affirmative action," Adams said.
He added that the loss of the suit caused the University to "redouble" its effort to recruit more talented and diverse students and encouraged students like James to help. .
“I don’t think he really answered my question, he mainly gave me statistics but I know that the University is trying,” James said.
President Michael Adams