Name Roop K.

Dutta Sora Kim

Class 2012 2013
Position Co-Chairs

At the core of any establishment is a small, humble beginning. From a

trickle emerged the rushing stream; before the forest was a seed. Corny
metaphors aside, things start from step one.
It’s often easy to forget that Minority Coalition wasn’t always here. It’s
even harder to keep in mind that MinCo has always been changing. Our
roots started recently. Our predecessors sought a safe space away from the
apathetic marginalization, discrimination, and injustice; they assembled—to
talk, to eat, to play music, to dance, to plan, to petition—and then
graduated, passing onto each new generation of Ephs. We continue this
tradition today in our subgroups, through our celebration of culture, activism,
and education of the greater community. We continue still to face the same
challenges that befall on all minorities; even now, we defend our identities,
our legitimacy, our right to exist on this campus. Most of our classmates
probably don’t know where Morley Circle is or that the MCC isn’t MinCo. We
also don’t get nearly enough funding. Essentially, we have yet to claim our
voice.
The ever-dwindling budget remains a significant issue common to all
subgroups. With each year, it’s harder to launch new events or maintain the
same scale of event-planning than years-before. It seems that we must
compromise our very spirit of preserving cultural identity with the lack of
financial backing. But our most pressing concern doesn’t simply begin with a
demand for more money. In order to prove the importance and value of our
subgroups, we must also challenge the institutional bureaucracy of the
current situation—this neat “allotment” of sufficient resources—and the
reluctance to change tired attitudes in the general public. We need more
attendance, better membership, and essentially, more people to care. That
is, people other than MinCo subgroups have to know about us. Before we
can even start thinking about mobilizing, improving, and rethinking social
attitudes, we must first build in our own roots, to build upon existing
groundwork.
This is where we are. We aren’t part-time minorities who exist only at
meetings and attend events out of some weird sense of guilt or obligation as
board members, in the same way that MinCo isn’t a bank or another line on a
resumé. Johannes and Grant have already started our work. What is
MinCo? It’s all of you and all of the people who have yet to be involved in it.
Us. Not just activism. Not just good food, dance, and music. Not just
lectures. All of it together.
Roop has served as MinCo secretary for 2 years; Sora is the current of
treasurer of Koreans of Williams, an active member of the QSU, and active
supporter of CASO, SOCA, BSU, WASO, Women’s Center, Women of Color
Coalition, and ISO (actually, it’s probably a better idea for me just to say, I
support all groups.). We are confident that we can run MinCo meetings
effectively and efficiently, implementing improvements to the current
meeting structure and contributing to the impending evolution of MinCo’s
role on the Williams’ campus.