Racial Strife at SLU, Students Drive Email Campaign
Date: 3/31/2010 9:35 am
Recent racially-charged incidents on campus led students at Saint Louis University to drive an email campaign to university administrators last week. Over 120 emails demanding responsive action were sent to five top administrators, including SLU's president, vice presidents and a dean. Violent racial slurs had become more commonplace on campus, and some minor vandalism is also assumed to be connected to the tense campus climate.
“It seems the administration is just kind of like they know what they are politically supposed to say, and I want them to feel uncomfortable," said senior Tianyi Li. "I want them to feel embarrassed that they haven’t done their job.”
Earlier this semester, one black student reported hearing two male voices outside her door saying “F*** you, n*****,” while they ripped the name tag off her door. The students have since been identified and asked to leave campus, but the administration did not do anything to address racism on the campus at large following the incident.
The email campaign, organized by the unofficial student group Students for Social Justice, contained a list of eight demands including a new 24-hour hotline to assist students who feel threatened, immediate notification for students when discriminatory threats occur, and the establishment of a standard protocol for dealing with hate-related incidents.
“I really didn’t know what the motivation was to start the emails now in terms of timing, because we had not heard of any new incidents, so I didn’t quite know what their motivation was,” said Manoj Patankar, the Vice President of SLU's Frost Campus. “B
“It seems the administration is just kind of like they know what they are politically supposed to say, and I want them to feel uncomfortable," said senior Tianyi Li. "I want them to feel embarrassed that they haven’t done their job.”
Earlier this semester, one black student reported hearing two male voices outside her door saying “F*** you, n*****,” while they ripped the name tag off her door. The students have since been identified and asked to leave campus, but the administration did not do anything to address racism on the campus at large following the incident.
The email campaign, organized by the unofficial student group Students for Social Justice, contained a list of eight demands including a new 24-hour hotline to assist students who feel threatened, immediate notification for students when discriminatory threats occur, and the establishment of a standard protocol for dealing with hate-related incidents.
“I really didn’t know what the motivation was to start the emails now in terms of timing, because we had not heard of any new incidents, so I didn’t quite know what their motivation was,” said Manoj Patankar, the Vice President of SLU's Frost Campus. “B