Administrators handle diversity on campus

UT President Sharon Gaber

With the social and political climate of the country, universities have been tasked with handling racism from both internal and external sources over the past year, with some schools rising to the occasion while others become cautionary tales.

The assault case Jan. 23, 2016, between a UT student and several fraternity members received a considerable amount of attention from the UT community, with allegations of racism popping up on twitter.

“Clearly there was an issue,” Gaber said. “Photo and comments went viral, and it was important that we responded promptly and that people understood that we care and that that’s not acceptable on this campus.”

UT isn’t the only school where conversations about race and diversity have been prompted by incidents both on and off campus. Many students at various colleges are protesting racism on campus and the lack of administrative action in response to it. However, UT is one of the colleges that has not yet seen that kind of protest in the 2015-16 school year.

“I think what happened elsewhere was that there wasn’t an adequate communication out to the community to say, ‘Hey, I’ve heard you. We’re going to look into this and we’re going to fix it,’” said President Sharon Gaber.

The University of Missouri is one notable example of where administrative members faced the backlash of a community who felt not enough was being done to address racism on campus. After shouted racial slurs and a swastika made of feces that was smeared on a bathroom wall, students began to protest. Even the faculty was worried, and the University of Missouri Faculty Council on University Policy released a statement Nov. 5, 2015, to voice their concern.

As a result of the negative feedback from the community, both President Timothy Wolfe and Chancellor Richard Bowen Loftin resigned Nov. 9, 2015.

Ithaca College saw similar protests against the administration, attended by both students and faculty. A group of alumni published an open letter in The Ithacan newspaper, calling for Ithaca President Tom Rochon’s resignation.

“Throughout his tenure, President Rochon has only exacerbated this adverse racial climate, and his removal would signal a direct challenge to the top-down, culturally incompetent administration that currently inundates campus operations,” the group wrote in the open letter.

Like the administrators at Missouri, Rochon resigned Jan. 14, 2016, following votes of no confidence from students and faculty alike.

The students of Missouri and Ithaca proved that student voices can be extremely impactful on university campuses. So far, UT has not been the site of any protests, and Gaber aims to keep ensuring students have ways to be heard.

“I think there are lots of ways to respond when you feel like something has happened and you want to make sure that you’re heard,” Gaber said. “Our students have lots of options and I am very appreciative, and I believe that they understand we’re going through this process and they’re waiting to see what happens and how it works its way through, and they’ve been supportive of that.”

Gaber said having avenues of communication in place before the assault happened means that the administration is paying attention and is interested in doing the right thing for the campus. While there is a process to deal with issues once they arise, Gaber wants to prevent the issues entirely.

“I got here in July,” Gaber said. “I spent some time looking around and said, ‘What are we doing about diversity and inclusion?’ and I asked Dr. McKether … I said, ‘I’d like you to work with me on putting together a diversity plan.’”

The diversity plan is being created with the voices of both the campus community — students, faculty, staff — and the greater community, according to Willie McKether, special assistant to the president for diversity.

“Even though we have completed the focus groups, there’s now going to be an online survey, and that’s going to be critically important … the purpose of that is to allow all students, faculty and staff the opportunity to weigh in,” McKether said.

In addition to feedback from these groups, McKether said he is looking at the successful diversity plans of other schools, like the University of California, Berkeley and Auburn University. He wants to see what they have put in place to see if anything can be modified to work for UT.

“I think we have uncovered that there are some issues related to inclusion, and the plan is to make sure that we address those,” Gaber said.

She said students go to college to become better educated and prepared for the future, and that ensuring students feel safe and included is part of that.

“This is our home,” Gaber said. “Why wouldn’t we want to be the best that we can be?”