- Presently at Boston College, a movement is underway
to do away with the word minority from this campus. The
movement is fundamentally directed by minority students
and it proposes to replace the word minority with the
word AHANA which stands for African-American, Hispanic,
Asian, Native American Students of Boston College. It is
the students belief that this word will best represent
their presence in the Boston College community.
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- The principal actor behind this movement has been
Alfred Feliciano. Alfred is a Hispanic student who has
been totally involved since his arrival at Boston College
with the AHANA students. Last year, he was president of
La Union Latina, and an executive member of the Black and
Third World Coalition. At the moment, Alfred holds the
position of Executive Assistant for AHANA Affairs of
UGBC.
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- Alfred, in conjunction with Valerie Lewis, a recent
SON graduate, were the creators of the AHANA movement and
the manufacturers of the word AHANA. In our interview
with Alfred last Sunday, we discussed why and how he had
initiated this movement. He expressed that he had always
been personally disturbed by the word minority. He
strongly felt that the word has only served to impose a
psychological block on AHANA people. He cited "this is
evident in that the word minority has been responsible
for alienating the AHANA community. For example, Asian,
Native Americans, and for the most part Hispanics have
refused to be identified as minorities, and thus this has
affected their disposition to work with blacks on common
problems. Alfred recognizes that this has been the case
in Boston College although signs of change are
discernible."
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- Alfred told us, it was during the second semester of
last year when he was nominated for Executive Assistant
of AHANA Affairs, that he began to ponder the
possibilities of such a movement being initiated at
Boston College. He began to visualize this movement
bringing together the AHANA Students on campus. Thus, he
decided to test the idea. His first step was to approach
the students and the administration on an informal basis.
He felt that the response, for the most part, was so
favorable that he decided to set up meetings with
students , faculty and administrators to discuss the
movement's future. At present, Alfred has received verbal
support of most AHANA students as well as that of such
distinguished administrators and faculty members as:
Donald Brown, Director of Minority Student Programs;
Richard Escobar, Undergraduate Admissions; Father Monan,
University President; Father Hanrahan, Dean of Students;
Enrique Ojeda, Spanish Faculty member; Carol Wegman,
OSPAR Director; Dan Cotter, UGBC President; and Cheryl
Goles, University Chaplain.
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- The movement's primary objectives are to get everyone
on campus to begin using the word AHANA instead of
minority. As Alfred stated, "we the African-Americans,
Hispanics and Asian students of Boston College want to be
called AHANA students not minority students." Another
objective is to physically remove the word minority form
Boston College. This particularly will apply to the
Office of Minority Student Programs. "We want to see the
name of the Office of Minority Student Programs changed
to the Office of AHANA Student Programs." Alfred also
told us that long-range goal will be to have this
movement spread throughout the nation's universities
campuses. Steps have already been taken to realize the
first two objectives. In an effort to get the students
involved in the movement and have them start utilizing
the word AHANA, Alfred has begun promoting the movement
by word-of-mouth. But also last Friday, a party was given
to bring together the AHANA community of Boston College.
T-shirts are being sold to promote the movement and the
spirit of AHANA. The second objective is also being
worked on. On Thursday, September 27, Alfred will go
before the Board of Trustees to introduce the AHANA
concept and its positive implications for all peoples of
color at B.C. In this way, the movement and its leaders
are doing their part to realize this dream.
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- We can only hope now that the Boston College students
and administration will sympathize and support the
legitimate desires of the AHANA students to erase from
their futures such a constraining word as minority.
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