The Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) has confirmed that there will be a Cultural Relations retreat this spring.The group, which advocates racial awareness and civil justice, had kept silent for the entire first semester on whether a retreat would be held. The retreat, which will be held in April, has been highly anticipated since the beginning of the school year.

“We’re really excited that we’re able to give Garfield a retreat this year” says senior and CORE member Elena Kazanjian. “All year everyone’s been asking us about when we’re going to have a retreat, and it feels good to tell people when it’s going to be because we weren’t even sure if we could do one.”

Reasons as to why the group hasn’t been able to organize off campus events have been widely speculated. It’s been no mystery that the group has been struggling financially, largely due to the fact that last years CORE left with a $9,000 deficit.

“We’ve been dealing with a lot of financial issues for the past couple months” says senior and CORE member Michael Haruta. “The debt and lack of communication with administration is what has been stalling us.”

Although the group has held a number of forums, the retreats remained the main attraction for the student body.

“I’ve liked the forums, but what I really want is a retreat” says junior Katie Trettenero. “I’ve never been on one, but I’ve heard that that’s where all the bonding happens and I want to experience that.”

The retreats a are relatively new component to the Cultural Relations program which has been in effect at Garfield since the 1990s. The program used to be mainly centered around school events. There was a Cultural Relations day at Garfield where the whole school would participate in forums and other activities, similar to those facilitated on retreats.

“The reason why we host retreats is to give students more of an intimate environment because some of the subjects we discuss are very personal” explains Kazangian. “But our goal this year is to make the program more than just the retreats because we’re trying to get more of the Garfield community involved.”

(Full disclosure: the author is a member of CORE.)