Diversity has greatly improved — this year, 24 percent of the 7,126 USD students are black, American Indian, Asian or Hispanic, compared with 15 percent in 1990 — but minority and gay students still say they sometimes feel outnumbered and overwhelmed. Besides a sympathetic forum, United Front helps these students present a unified voice for change, cultural education, funding and a role in forming campus policies. The group is all inclusive — students need not be a member of one of the clubs to join the umbrella organization.

Corona says United Front is unusual because individual groups came together before attempting to bring about changes.

"United Frontis a coalition of students who joined forces to advocate for issues
collectively," says Corona, whose duties include developing partnerships with community groups, helping retain and recruit students with diverse backgrounds, organizing cultural events and coordinating hate-crime workshops. "Instead of dividing and each fighting for one small piece of the pie, they work together to get a bigger piece."

United Front came into being in 1993, after five student clubs proposed the creation of a multicultural center, which they believed would encourage diversity on campus, provide a stronger voice for under-represented groups and educate all students about other cultures.

"It was just like having a home," recalls Pamela Putian '94, a co-founder of United Front. Putian, a Filipina, says it was a struggle at first to convince the administrators and Associated Students that it was important for the clubs to have their own space.

"We were getting more students coming in every year from different backgrounds, and we wanted to make sure we had enough resources and a place for those students to come," says Putian, 30. "We were not being separatists, as some people thought at first. We were trying to help people who needed to identify with an organization."

As part of their plan, the groups agreed to share resources, to promote and support each other's activities and to work together. In its infancy, United Front operated from a desk in the Associated Students office with a $700 budget. In 1997, Corona was hired as assistant director of activities, and has since become director of the Multicultural Center. Today, United Front has a budget around $50,000 and has several paid staff. Grants expanded the center's resource library, while operating funds come mainly from the AS budget.

Over time, United Front members went from talking about issues to putting their thoughts into action and making changes, and they now often act as the campus' social conscience and its activist arm. Student presidents of the clubs gather once a month to set goals and objectives, which in the past included advocating for the position of vice president of multicultural relations now occupied by Neighbours, who acts as the alliance's voice on the AS executive board.

From the beginning, United Front offered programs to increase cultural awareness among students, some of whom say they might otherwise not have given diversity a second thought. Senior Aisha Taylor got involved with United Front after attending one of the group's human relations workshops, offered several times a year to talk about diversity issues. She says United Front gave her a deeper understanding of her relationships with others and radically changed her career goals. Although she wanted to be a doctor, Taylor now is considering a career as a theology or ethnic studies professor, or as an organizational counselor who works on diversity issues.

"Before, I just saw things through my perspective, and didn't realize there were other lenses to see through," says Taylor, 22. "I've benefited from hearing about so many different viewpoints, and learning about others gave me a broader perspective from which to see myself."

One of United Front's biggest accomplishments is the addition of an ethnic studies component to the curriculum. In 1993, faculty and staff, with the support of students, began lobbying university administrators to add an ethnic studies program. Five years ago, ethnic studies was introduced as a minor, with 11 students currently in the program. In February, after a two-year effort led primarily by students, the minor was elevated to an academic major in the College of Arts and Sciences.

In this case, United Front members were heartened that they didn't have to go it alone.

"We pushed for a major because it prepares students for a multicultural society," says senior Demetrios Sparacino, 22, an English major on the ethnic
studies steering committee, composed mainly of United Front and AS members. "Elevating ethnic studies to a major gives it legitimacy and more financial backing from the administration."

United Front representatives and professors point out that the ethnic studies program benefits everyone on campus. English Professor Gail Perez, interim ethnic studies director, says the courses equip students to succeed in contemporary society. Without knowledge of other cultures and cross cultural confidence, she says, they would lack a competitive edge.

"Students of all ethnicities want to bein a diverse place," she says, "because they understand that if USD doesn't reflect the world, then they are not getting a relevant education."

Beyond the classroom, United Front takes on many other tasks. The alliance urges the recruitment of more minority students and professors. Many of its members serve on student committees that give input on candidates for administrative positions. The group also takes a stand against prejudice and, in November, supported a rally and vigil following incidents in which diversity posters and a student's residence hall door were defaced.

"The students have created a campus-wide awareness that hate is not
something USD wants to be part of," Corona says. "The students set a norm for how they want to treat each other and how they want this campus to be viewed by the community — as one that is inclusive, welcoming and embracing of diversity."

United Front members frequently return to their high schools and talk to minority students about attending USD. They collaborate with the admissions office to provide campus tours, and hold post-tour panel discussions where minority students talk about their experience at Alcalá Park. Campus leaders say the organization also improves retention among culturally diverse students.

"United Front provides a taste of home for students of color on our campus, which is still predominately Caucasian," says Thomas Cosgrove, associate vice president for student affairs. "United Front helps them feel more comfortable, and it's been documented in research that multicultural centers can be important in developing a sense of belonging among students. That sense of belonging relates directly to whether the
student chooses to stay."

Opening multicultural centers is a growing trend on campuses around the nation, but there is ongoing debate among experts about whether they are a good idea. Some researchers say these organizations create a healthy academic environment for all students, and help students learn, and encourage them to think in deeper and more complex ways. Others say multicultural centers and ethnic courses encourage separatist thinking among minority students.

Ask members of United Front how the group helps students and prepares them for the world, and they point to Todd Gloria '00. A political science major, Gloria now is the district director for Rep. Susan Davis, a San Diego Democrat. He supervises a staff of six and oversees day-to-day operations in the district, which stretches from upscale Del Mar, Calif., to the low-income neighborhoods near the U.S.-Mexico border.

"I work with a very diverse office and district," says the 24-year-old. "I think I'm more sensitive to immigration issues and what it's like to be a first generation American. I understand when people complain about the bureaucracy of the INS and the difficulty of becoming a naturalized citizen. The first day on the job would have been the first I'd heard of the issue if
not for United Front."

Gloria's parents both are half Tligit, an Alaskan tribe. But it was his sexual orientation, not his ethnicity, that led him to seek out United Front. Gloria is gay, and he says belonging to United Front helped him cope with teasing and assured him that he made the right decision by coming to USD.

"I had students make fun of me," says Gloria, a former member of PRIDE and the Native American Student Organization, "There's something to be said for sitting around with folks who experienced thesame thing."

Like Robert Neighbours, United Front showed Gloria how to become an advocate for awareness, and how to change attitudes. As a student, he helpedpromote the inclusion of sexual orientation as a protected
group in the university's non-discrimination policy, a change that went into effect 2001.

"I learned a lot about advocacy, recognizing the issues and trying to do something about them," he says. "United Front taught me a lot about what folks who feel disenfranchised feel. I now know what it means
to be an advocate and activist."

So let the experts debate, says Corona. She and the students who belong to United Front say the group helps USD graduate students with the skills necessary to serve, and improve, a global society.

"Multicultural centers like the United Front serve as a reminder that, although we may have made progress, there's a need to provide safe zones for students to learn about diversity," she says. "The center is place where all students are welcome to share their unique perspectives."

United Front members say their work is far from finished. They would like to see the study of diversity become a general education requirement, and they continue to push for more aggressive recruitment and retention of students and faculty from diverse backgrounds. Most important, they continue to stand up for themselves — and for each other.

"It's important to look at diversity," says freshman Nicholas Severson, a member of United Front and vice president of PRIDE, "because it's all around us."