Minority students have to live every day as the ones who stand out in class, on the bus and at the mall.

Black caucuses on campus want to address this issue, along with other issues that affect minority students, by inviting people of all races to attend their meetings.

The difficulty in increasing diversity within the group does not come from the lack of invitations; it stems from an apathetic student population, Black Caucus officials say.

Accounting junior Melanie Simmons is a racial ethnic student aide in Wonders Hall. She is just one of the Office of Racial Ethnic Student Affairs aides on campus, who assists students of color in the residence hall, she said.

In Wonders Hall, where all floor mentors are required to participate in Black Caucus meetings, ORESA aides are strongly urged to participate in Black Caucus, she said. Simmons said many people are misinformed about Black Caucus.

"Black Caucus is for us to discuss the issues facing the black community," Simmons, who is black, said. "Anyone who is (not black) that comes gets to see what types of issues we face, and they don't have to go off of the stereotypes that they hear."

Simmons said that there are too many stereotypes about black students for her to be able to explain all of them.

Aayush Dharia, who is Indian, said he has never attended a Black Caucus meeting because he doesn't know what they are about, he said.

"The name doesn't really invite everyone," Dharia, a preoptometry sophomore said. "If (non-black students) knew (the meeting) was for everyone, they'd go to it."

He attends the Coalition of Indian Undergraduate Students, or CIUS, meetings so he can keep in touch with his Indian roots, he said. He only knows about Black Caucus because he sees signs advertising the meetings and events.

"(Black Caucus) has information about going to the meetings around the dorms," he said. "They should (say) that they invite everyone because the (CIUS) meetings that I go to say 'open to everyone.'"

Taylor Lewis, who is black and president of Hubbard Hall's Black Caucus, said the group goes out of its way to increase non-black students' attendance at the meetings by literally asking residents to attend.

"We want as many students as we can to come out," Lewis, a political science and pre-law junior said. "When we see other students of other ethnicities and other races in the hallways, we make it a point to invite them, but there is only so much that we can do. We can't beg people to come out."

Thomas Collins, who is black, said he is an ORESA aide in Hubbard Hall and participates in the meetings because he feels it's important for everyone to experience Black Caucus.

"There's no division — we're all students," said Collins, a political science and business administration sophomore.

Collins said he was part of Black Caucus last year in Bryan Hall where it was "very diverse."

(The meetings) included black, white and Indian students, Collins said.

"It made the discussions better because there were all types of different viewpoints," he said. "I welcomed (non-black students') input and view of our discussions."

Katelynd Haggerty lived in Case Hall last year and has never been to a Black Caucus meeting.

"I don't really feel like I would have any input or the ability to relate," she said. "I don't really understand what it is, and I've never really been invited."

Haggerty, a sociology and elementary education junior, is white.

"I think if I went, there would be a situation where I would be the only white student there," she said. "I'm not saying that I wouldn't go to one, but I just feel like I don't have enough information."

Fear is a key factor in people not attending the meetings, Lewis said.

"It is a fear because it is a reverse role — not a bad fear, but a natural fear," she said. "It's something that minorities deal with every day on campus, and we are understanding of that."

An outside view

Candace Gray, a public relations and Spanish sophomore, said she attended a Black Caucus planning meeting to show her support for their cause. She immediately noticed she was one of two white people attending the meeting.

"I was the minority," Gray said. "You don't think about it because being a white person, I'm the majority. To see what (minority students) go through every day is a must for a white person to broaden their understanding of what minority students have to go through and make them more aware that white students cannot just go through life thinking that the world is centered on the white population."

Wonders Hall assistant hall director Kelly Hedinger was the only other white person in the room.

When Hedinger accepted the position as an assistant hall director, she said her lack of exposure to a diverse community made her hesitant about taking charge of the hall's Black Caucus group.

"I said, 'OK, I'm white,'" Hedinger said. "I do not know what it's like to be a black student on campus, nor will I ever. But, it's something that I care about, and that's much more important."

She said she learned about the Black Caucus program during her hall-director training but asked the ORESA aides in her hall to help get the Black Caucus meetings together again for the school year.

"Some people may assume that it's not going to be what they think it'll be because the adviser is white," Simmons said. "But, because she's not from the culture, she will be able to help come up with things and arrange things for us to learn. It's a good thing because it provides an outside view."

Dharia feels that if he were in a role-reversal situation, he wouldn't really care.

"It doesn't matter because I don't look at people by their skin," he said. "I don't care what ethnicity somebody is as long as they are willing to be nice."

Dharia also said that he feels putting non-minority students into role-reversal situations would be a good experience for them.

"We, as minorities, do it every day," he said. "It would only be fair for that student to see what it's like to be a minority."

Some students take the initiative and make it a point to go to at least one Black Caucus meeting. Jared Wein, who is white, attended his first meeting last year and makes it a point to go whenever he can.

On Sunday, Wein, a computer science junior, was the only white student at the Black Caucus meeting in Hubbard Hall. Wein said he goes to the meetings because he has a lot of friends who attend.

At Sunday's meeting, attendees discussed why some black students come to college and try to look and act a certain way. The round table discussion addressed stereotypes of black males as "thugs" and of black females, citing rapper Lil' Kim as one example. Wein was the only white student out of about 40 attendees.

"If your environment is full of minorities, you should take the initiative to learn about those other cultures so that you can be comfortable in your environment."

Wein said he didn't feel awkward the first time he attended a meeting.

"It's just skin-deep," he said. "People are just people."