About 50 students gathered in Orange and Brew on Tuesday night for guided discussions on culture in politics, in a open forum titled “Politics of Silence.”
Student Government sponsored the forum, which cost about $200 to host.
Participants were shown videos related to the recent suicides of homosexual students who were struggling with discrimination. They also discussed race relations in politics and the planned constructions of an Islamic center near Ground Zero in New York City.
Students were then asked to discuss their feelings about the issues and how they thought the issues relate to UF.
Nirav N. Patel, a philosophy and geography junior, stood up and elaborated on the need for UF cultural organizations to interact more.
“I feel like we’re still segregated here,” he said. “It sucks being in an old southern school.”
According to Romilda Justilien, director of multicultural affairs for SG, the purpose of the event was to advance social justice and raise awareness of other cultures.
The aim is to make just one person more socially conscious so that he or she can promote it to friends and family, she said.
“I think that we got some really great ideas that we want to implement,” Justilien said.
Ching-Ya Ni, a Chinese and political science junior, said she came to the event to hear the political opinions of students outside of class.
She said the event provided a good outlet for addressing multiculturalism, but that it could have had more diversity.
“I just wish there were more people so it could have been a better discussion,” she said.
