Tag Archives: race

FEATURED
Roth: Public Safety Will No Longer Include Race in Safety Alerts

“Diversity and Inclusion” will be theme for next fall’s Orientation, fall Board of Tustees retreat

In an all-campus email update yesterday, President Roth sent word that Public Safety will no longer include racial identifications in its safety alerts, an issue that has become increasingly contentious since Homecoming Weekend, when a sudden rash of safety incidents all described assailants as “African-American males.” The move has been recommended by a Public Safety Review Committee, which consists of students, faculty, and staff members. From Roth’s note:

The committee has recommended that Public Safety modify campus safety alerts to provide descriptions of suspects without using race as a descriptor, and Public Safety has adopted this practice. The committee continues to review the department’s policies and protocols, web presence, and schedule of trainings. Ensuring that there is a clear path for reporting concerns to the department is important.

Roth’s attention to issues of diversity and racial profiling follows closely on November’s “Diversity University” forum, where the topic of alleged racial profiling took center stage, alongside claims of Public Safety misconduct (most notably, an incident involving Paulie Lowther ’13), hateful ACB remarks, and diversity sensitivity in general. A number of students of color took the microphone at that event, describing being singled out for suspicion and unwarranted hostility. “It’s your responsibility not only to protect us, but to get to know us,” a student demanded to Director of Public Safety Dave Meyer. A heated exchange followed between Meyer, who insisted that Public Safety is required by Connecticut law to include racial identifications in email alerts, and Visiting Professor of English and African-American Studies Sarah Mahurin, who claimed that Yale—where she completed her graduate work—does not include race in its reports. (Meyer disputed this claim; a current Yale law student later verified it in an email to Wesleying.)

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FEATURED
Following “Hate-Related Incidents,” Oberlin Cancels Classes for a Day of Solidarity

Not long after Wesleyan’s own “Diversity University” panel followed on hateful remarks on the ACB and racial identification in Public Safety reports, Oberlin College is experiencing its share of diversity-related conflict.

The liberal arts college in Oberlin, OH, received reports this morning of “a person wearing a hood and robe resembling a KKK outfit between South and the Edmonia Lewis Center and in the vicinity of Afrikan Heritage House.” Shortly after, the college officially cancelled classes for the day, and students acted quickly to organize a “day of solidarity.”

Oberlin has reportedly been experiencing numerous accounts of hate-related issues recently. According to Arianna Gil Oberlin ’15, an active organizer in the “day of solidarity,” the past month has seen many “threats, attacks, defacement, and graffiti” against students of color and queer students.

This page offers a detailed timeline of the incidents of hate from February.

When asked about whether the suspects are students, Gil responded, “No one really knows who they are. I have my thoughts.”

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EVENT
Wesleyan Humanity Festival Info Session [Today]

In collaboration with Diversity University and Gibson Guitars, Raechel Rosen ’15 and JJ Mitchell ’15 invite you to plan The Wesleyan Humanity Festival:

Inspired by the intellectual musings of Professor Dar Williams, the Wesleyan Humanity Festival is a one-day musical celebration in solidarity against bigotry, racism, and social divisions.

The festival will take place this April and intends to bring all members of the Wesleyan and greater Middletown community together through music, art, and spoken word poetry. The festival will encourage dialogue about—and action against—the existing class, racial, and social rifts that exist within the community. The Wesleyan Humanity Festival will bring passionate, politically aware, and socially conscious artists who have united audiences in the face of difference. The festival will include both performance and direct dialogue. Through this day, we hope to inspire an open attitude and to continue the growing movement towards understanding how to create an inclusive community.

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EVENT
Race: How it Matters in Reproductive Technologies

Hilda Vargas ’15 and the Philosophy Department have an opportunity for you to get your weekly dose of dialogue (with a visiting lecturer, no less).

Hi everyone!

The Philosophy Department is hosting a lecture tomorrow (Thursday, January 31st) entitled, “Race: How it Matters in Reproductive Technologies.” It will be at 4:15 in Russell House (350 High Street) and the lecturer is Camisha Russell from Penn State University. Come check it out if you can!The Philosophy Department is hosting a lecture tomorrow (Thursday, January 31st) entitled, “Race: How it Matters in Reproductive Technologies.” It will be at 4:15 in Russell House (350 High Street) and the lecturer is Camisha Russell from Penn State University. Come check it out if you can!

Date: Thursday, January 31
Time: 4:15-5:15
Place: Russell House (350 High Street)

FEATURED
“Diversity University” Forum: Complete Video Is Online, Worth Watching

It’s long. You should watch it anyway.

Following public comments by President Roth and the WSA, the discussion surrounding Monday night’s forum on race and diversity continues around campus—in online comments, in blog posts, but most of all in personal conversations I’ve overheard (or took part in) over the past few days.

If you missed the forum and still aren’t sure what all of the talk is about, Ben Doernberg ’13 (who livestreamed the event on Monday) has taken the liberty of consolidating his footage into one master YouTube video. It’s long (the forum began at 7:30 and continued well past 10 pm), and the video quality isn’t ideal, but you should easily be able to make out what’s being said. And you should watch it, too. Three hours is daunting, so split it into segments. Let the audio play while you’re doing work. Listen to it on your iPhone while running. But listen.

As one of the students on the panel remarks about thirty minutes in, “These are discussions that we must have, and not discussions that are silenced.”

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FEATURED
Roth on Last Night’s Forum

Roth to Wes: “It was difficult last night to realize that we have fallen short, and that I have fallen short, of my aspirations for making Wesleyan an inclusive campus.”

Within minutes of pyrotechnics’ post about last night’s lengthy, heated, and utterly startling forum about race and inclusion, President Roth sent out an all-campus email summarizing his reflections and plan for action. In brief, the president describes the forum as “an intense, disturbing and enlightening experience for me”:

It was difficult last night to realize that we have fallen short, and that I have fallen short, of my aspirations for making Wesleyan an inclusive campus for progressive liberal arts education. But it was good to be reminded of those shared aspirations. It was difficult (terribly difficult) to hear the accounts of disappointment, anger and pain. But it was good to see the solidarity and affection of members of our community as they reached out to comfort one another — with snapping fingers, with applause, with hugs.

Roth goes on to acknowledge two other upcoming forums—one with the WSA Committee on Inclusion and Diversity, another with Invisible Men, Asian American Student Collective, Ujamaa, and the WSA Committee for Inclusion and Diversity—and vows to follow up on concerns raised last night by developing a list of the most important policies to improve, assigning staff to work with students and faculty, and giving a “progress report to the campus community.”

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Video: Forum About Race and Inclusion

In five minutes in Beckham Hall, President Roth will be participating in a panel discussion on race and inclusion. The discussion will be moderated by diversity officer Sonia Manjon and will feature various student, faculty, and Public Safety representatives. As Roth wrote a few days ago,

I hope there will be a good turnout so that we can have a frank conversation about how we can create a campus climate in which all are treated with respect. More than that, we want a campus that builds on acceptance, creating bonds of affectionate solidarity.

Can’t make it? Watch it from your bed. The panel is being livestreamed by social media journalist Ben Doernberg ’13 on U-Stream, as well as by the University at this link. For more, read this post. [Edit: more video after the jump.]

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EVENT
“Diversity University:” In Theory and In Practice

From the super awesome Izzy Rode ’14:

Join us for a community forum about the racial climate on campus in the wake of offensive ACB posts, the recent Public Safety alerts, and incidents of racial profiling and brutality.

The forum will feature a panel of speakers:
President Michael Roth
Public Safety Director David Meyer
Chantaneice Kitt ’13
Dorisol Inoa ’13
Evan Okun ’13
Jalen Alexander ’14
Professor Liza McAlister
Professor Alex Dupuy

This event will be moderated by Wesleyan’s Chief Diversity Officer. Sonia Manjon. If you have any questions for the panel, please submit them here. The moderator will pose questions and concerns submitted anonymously, and field questions and concerns directly from the audience.

SEE YOU THERE.

Date: Monday, November 12
Time: 7:30pm
Place: Beckham Hall
Cost: Zero

FEATURED
Allegations of Public Safety Misconduct Emerge after Incident at Freeman

As issues of race and diversity come to a head on campus, a disturbing account of a Public Safety assault on a student has emerged. As you may be aware, Paulie Lowther ’13 was found at the Freeman Athletic Center on Tuesday, October 30, and charged with criminal trespass and breach of peace. After being released from custody, Lowther, who is African-American, was diagnosed with a concussion.

Accounts of what transpired during the encounter vary.

According to the Hartford Courant, which sources its information from the police report, “Lowther tried to run away from public safety officers when found at 12:10 a.m.” Police say he appeared drunk when taken into custody. (Lowther says he was under the legal limit.) Public Safety claims he refused to identify himself and fled when found.

Wesleying Editor Zach Schonfeld ’13 visited Lowther’s house on Fountain earlier this week to get his side of the story.

According to Lowther, he was invited to a pool party in Freeman on the night of Tuesday, October 30th, which was during Hurricane Sandy. He entered through the side door, which had been propped open by the organizers of the party. When he arrived, other students were in the pool. Before joining them, he got in the sauna.

When in the sauna, “[he] heard a bunch of people yell ‘P-Safe’ and a lot of running.” He decided to not run. A female Public Safety officer arrived. Staying in the sauna, he told her his Wes ID number and that he was a student. The officer “said it didn’t match anything on file,” according to Lowther.

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Dear NBC Connecticut: You’re Not Helping

Let’s get this right off the bat: this post is about one particular aspect of the aftermath of the Usdan flyer controversy.

You might have heard of it by now, or maybe even seen it. Yesterday, NBC Connecticut vans were spotted on campus grounds, and we later got word that reporters were trying to squeeze soundbites out of Wes students. Later that night, they ran a news story about the Usdan flyer incident. It was short, it was a little strange, and most disturbingly, it was considerably misleading. Then came the newest update: Rajan Zed, president of the Universal Society of Hinduism, is denouncing Wesleyan from across the country and calling on the university to apologize for the incident.

There has been much heated debate behind the scenes here in the cyberspace office of Wesleying ever since last Friday’s incident. We as a self-accountable collective of bloggers had to confront very difficult questions: what is our role in the student body? What are our duties? How far can we go with moderation and censorship? How do we balance between protection and preservation of the discussion? Most of these questions went unanswered, simply because they are so grey and difficult.

But when the NBC Connecticut story ran last night, it was pretty clear what needed to be done. Bad reporting on what happened here at Wes needs to be covered, and the viewing lens of the story has to re-calibrated for the benefit of the community. This is precisely what this post will try to do. Now, I just want to make clear that this is an insanely difficult and sensitive thing to write about. And I know I’m probably going to get slammed in the face one way or another for doing something or for not doing another thing or whatever, but fuck it—I’m doing it. This is something of a long piece, so hit me up after the jump.

Oh, and one more thing: if you’re on the NBC Connecticut staff, hello! This is for you. Really.

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