The University Senate Committee on Equal Opportunity and Access, along with a number of other campus organizations, hosted a student forum entitled, “Legally Integrated, but Socially Segregated: Life on Campus for Students at UIUC,” Monday evening at the WILL television studio in Campbell Hall, 300 N. Goodwin Ave.

The forum was videotaped and will be edited to DVD format, WILL Executive Producer Henry Szujewski said. The ultimate goal is to edit the video down to one hour for potential broadcast on WILL. The DVD will also be sent to various organizations on campus to facilitate further conversation on the issues addressed at the forum.

Coleman Evans, graduate student, facilitated the forum by asking questions to the students in attendance and leading the conversation. When WILL ended the forum, students were still waiting behind the microphone for their chance to speak.

Evans said his studies in race, class and gender made him a qualified candidate to host the forum, which covered topics including stereotypes, socio-economic barriers and self-segregation of different races and ethnicities on campus.

“My goals were to get issues out there,” Evans said. “I know things like this aren’t discussed in substantive ways across lines.”

Jennifer Liggett, junior in Communications and member of the black Greek community voiced her opinions on various issues facing minorities on campus, and said that regardless of background, students should strive for an atmosphere of acceptance.

“We need to learn to understand each other’s culture just a little better,” she said, explaining that the experiences of individuals can easily skew their perception of an issue, or even an entire group.

Zenobia Ravji, sophomore in LAS, was also vocal at the forum. She said she took special interest in the topics at hand because of her position as the Illinois Student Senate Committee Chair of Cultural and Minority Affairs.

“It was great to have us express our ideas and opinions, however, I felt there was one perpetuating opinion,” she said. “I think a lot of students wanted to say something that wasn’t the status quo, but didn’t want to voice it.”

Evans, Liggett, Szujewski and Ravji each said that a larger audience in a bigger setting could improve future forums. The fact that the forum was videotaped also caused time to be an issue.

“I think they were just getting warmed up,” Szujewski said. “I think that they met their needs, and they could do more of these.”

Regine Rucker, graduate student and event organizer, saw Monday’s forum as a success and a springboard for future events of a similar kind.

“I think forums like this are not only needed to occur more frequently, we need to follow up with it,” she said.