Commissioner of diversity affairs is one of the more impotent positions on the A.S. Council — a shame, considering that Marco Murillo was one of the more exciting candidates we saw this year. A native San Diegan and a graduate of Preuss School, he is uniquely grounded in the diversity-related concerns of UCSD and the San Diego area.
Regardless of who is in the position of commissioner of diversity affairs, they have little power to affect the state of diversity on campus. But we believe Murillo is the man to help initiate “baby steps,” as he put it, toward a campus that’s more welcoming to students of diverse racial, cultural, political, religious and other backgrounds. We see him as representing the diversity concerns of many different groups, not just a select few. We commend his independence from the Student Affirmative Action Committee organizations, and his insistence that the diversity office make itself distinct from SAAC.
Murillo, who has created a mentoring program at Preuss, emphasizes the importance of mentoring and tutoring programs. We believe programs like these will help nip some diversity problems in the bud, and bring more students like Murillo to UCSD.
Murillo also has plans for diversity-related programming, such as bringing speakers to campus, as well as plans to expand the diversity office. He supports high school conferences, which he describes as “extremely important,” as well as cultural graduations, though we remain agnostic of these efforts.
Overall, his views on UCSD’s diversity challenges are cogent. He is not beholden to a specific demographic or SAAC, and rather showed concern for a variety of groups.
His opponent, Yee Lee of Tritons United!, declined to be interviewed. Since the decision followed a refusal during last year’s elections, we suspect she did so for a reason. In her candidate statement Lee announced similar plans to hold programming to promote diversity, as well as increasing participation in outreach. She also promises to lobby on behalf of underrepresented communities. These promises are standard, and don’t show the initiative of Murillo’s mentoring program. She also openly woos SAAC organizations, which we believe the office needs to step away from.
