I write this letter with great sadness as a concerned student who has been at this University since 2005, having received my undergraduate degree here and choosing to stay for my graduate degree. I am disheartened and truly angry that, once again, our university has become a place that showcases individuals’ hate and ignorance for its minority students. As a university that pretends to pride itself on diversity and respect, little of this has been shown to students from marginalized communities during my time at the university. It feels that this university environment shows a lack of respect and care for students that do not fit the Caucasian Christian American ideal.
A place of education should absolutely be a safe space that fosters knowledge of more than just books, but of life, which in today’s transnational society means diversity. The cotton ball incident followed a series of false promises and fake intentions. Nowhere has this been clearer than the fact that many have ignored or found frivolous reasons to not enact a diversity class immediately, as it is clearly needed. This university is far from a safe space; instead it has become a place for individuals to fuel hateful rhetoric and insensitive images with little fundamental change.
As a sophomore I watched someone walk into Greek Life in black face and be punished behind closed doors. As a graduate student I saw cotton thrown on the Black Culture Center, and now again we see racial slurs spray painted on a dorm statue. This is disturbing beyond the fact that I pay thousands and thousands of dollars a year to receive an education at a university that seems not to deal with systemic ignorance. However, this is what I have come to expect, and honestly I am not surprised that a university with a terrible retention rate of minority professors and students would be a place that fosters this behavior. With this I say I don’t want another unemotional email claiming this will not be tolerated, when clearly this behavior has and will continue unless actual action is taken and change is made.
