By CANDACE MIERS

Contributing Editor

"We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools."

-- Martin Luther King Jr.

There is an obvious segregation of different types and groups of students in the Student Center, Main Floor.

Behind the condiment bar, a majority of African-American students sit, while in front of it sit mainly Caucasian students separated into more groups.

"It's nothing personal," Paul Pugh, a senior health and physical education major, said. "I think the separation just started as fraternity and sorority groups. We wouldn't care if a white person sat with us, but they all seem to be in their groups, too."

Dr. Gary Stokley, an associate professor of social sciences, said it is not unusual for groups to get into patterns.

"When barriers are intentionally put up to separate people, people get mad, but when there are no restrictions, people tend to do the same thing," Stokley said.

"Race isn't the issue. Groups form because people who group together have the same interests, backgrounds and like the same activities."

LaTaurus Richardson, a junior biology major, agrees with the reasons people separate.

"The reason why there is separation is because we feel comfortable with people like us. No disrespect," Richardson said. "But I just feel more relaxed around people with my common interest."

Stokley said the separation in the Student Center is obvious, but even before the food court was built the same thing happened.

Stokley said, "Faculty sat with faculty, Greeks sat with other Greeks and there was even a commuter lounge which led the commuters to have no interaction with other students."

Stokley also said the Student Center separation, addressed from a social science point of view, is not a major problem.

He said students are getting along, even if it is with just their group of friends.

"I'm sure that this separation thing is the same on campuses everywhere," Pugh said.

Although there is no proof of separation on other campuses, Stokley said there very well may be.

"There is a certain freedom for a group of individuals to occupy a space, and claim that space for themselves," Stokley said.

"That doesn't mean that the people who make up that group are unreceptive to others but that they just feel comfortable in that group."

Another reason people establish a group, Stokley said, is because in doing so those people are saying, "We are somebody."

Stokley said, "People need a place to identify themselves in a physical sense, where they sit in the food court, and psychologically, that is one of the dynamics of 'why' there is an obvious separation."