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Notes from the conversation:

Anne Fitzsimmons was the moderator for this forum. Why the title of the forum: is diversity allowed to be talked about in classrooms? Are courses designed around diversity?

While Anne introduced the forum, pictures taken by Public Safety of bias related incidents on whiteboards in the dorms were passed around. The messages on the boards: Dave and Will AKA "Gay Dave"; I hate nigger dudes.

Questions framing the conversation:
Where does free speech become hate speech?
Have bias-related incidents been handled and handled well?

Jennifer: The hate crime against the gay friend of students--it wasn't handled well by the university. The Women's Studies classes did handle it well. Maxwell didn't handle it well at all. The response was: "It happens to everyone, it really shouldn't be a big deal." It doesn't affect government as a whole, was their stance, so it wasn't important. Granted, it might not be their main focus, but they didn't really try to address it in a meaningful way.

Kayt: In African American Studies, the study of oppressed people anywhere is taken up seriously. The professor spent an entire class on the gay-bashing issue. The assigned material for that day was covered another day. The professor emphasized how the incidents were hate crimes, and they discussed the university's response to the hate crimes. The blackface incident had several forums, several university-wide events; there weren't as many (if any) for the gay-bashing. There needs to be more connection between oppressed groups. The problems need to be addressed equally--by the community. These issues can't be segmented, one can't be valued over another. (An example) With the war on Iraq: women with equal experiences being treated differently. How do you look at a situation and decide who gets more treatment?

Steph: In VPA classes, the bias related incidents weren't discussed at all. It shouldn't depend on the major, it should be important to us all.

Jessica: There needs to be a class that specifically addresses such issue.

Kayt: There used to be a "diversity curriculum" that was a variety of classes. It tried to be reinstated but the group of students have since graduated and no one has really worked diligently on the issue to my knowledge. There is a group of students working to get this reinstated.

Anne: we are also really interested in what is going on with events that are not public incidents-the everyday events.

Jessica: I know the freshmen were exposed to the idea of diversity during orientation, but this didn't do much to sustain diversity after orientation.

Jennifer: There was a film shown in the dorms that made a big deal out of public safety punishing people who write things on white boards. Everyone laughed at the film. Guys would write dyke on the board and mean it to be funny. And this is a problem in society. People say that something is "gay," meaning it is stupid. This can be a big deal to someone who isn't out. These messages creates a hostile community. It affects everyone in some way. It affects visitors because it sends the message that this person thinks gays are bad.

Representative from Residence Life: They decided last year to tell or train RA's to take all messages seriously (bitch, fag, etc) and report it. They were tired of the environment it created. This year so far is there have been 58 incidents. They have decided to confront the issue and not make it acceptable. They take it seriously. Most students respond that they were just joking, but they don't let them off the hook. They try to let the students know why this isn't funny.

Jennifer: My floor meeting was two minutes. The message is that these phrases and words upset a group. But there is not a discussion about the way that it affects the entire community. No one really takes these meetings seriously.

Mara (Professor of Education): What are we not learning in our classes? We don't have enough faculty that are committed to teaching diversity, even if we revive the "diversity curriculum." What keeps faculty from talking about it?

James (Office for Multicultural Affairs): Not every faculty member is comfortable with talking about or addressing diversity in the classroom.

Margaret Himley (Director of Undergraduate Studies, The Writing Program): How do we work with the word diversity in the classroom?

Kayt: Are we really talking about the same things when we talk about diversity? It's such an intangible thing. And do we employ the idea of diversity in our everyday activities at the university?

Tim: How can a student make it through four years of college without understanding how blackface or messages on a whiteboard can be offensive? Diversity is something you have to want to experience. There are divisions that the university has tried to address: like random housing for Freshman. The university needs to create a way to get people together more. The way things are now, you can ignore it if you want to.

Steph: People usually define diversity as oppressed groups, but we are diverse only when considered as a whole. I come from a small town. It wasn't close-minded. Even though I come from a small area, diversity incorporates a variety of experiences.

Mark: Concerning black face: When I first started reading about it, I kept thinking: did the person know? Did they know they were representing a history? These incidents should be examined on a case-by-case basis. Does being unaware affect the university response? Would a diversity curriculum actually change anything?

Mahdia: It is the university's job to educate the students here. Yes, people will do what they want to do, but we need to put our courses into action. If we learn about diversity in our courses, there will be no excuse: "I've read it, I've seen it, I understand it." Then there will be no questioning whether a person had previous knowledge and was exposed to the subject and consequences before hand. With, the incident two years ago: the student who dressed in blackface didn't even do the community service assigned as a penalty that they were supposed to do. If we have training in class, there are no excuses and the Judicial Review Board needs to follow through on the penalties given to ensure that what was given out as a penalty is upheld.

Mark: Where do we draw the line? Who gets to make jokes? What is the line between humor and hate crime?

Kayt: Is it as unacceptable for a non-white student to put on white face? As for a white student to put on blackface? We have to know the history, the culture, the economic impact of history on the group being represented. Marylin Monroe, for example, is on a pedestal, is idolized, so dressing up as her is probably not going to be thought of as humorous-it would be glamorous. Pacific Islanders, African Americans, Asians, etc., do not enjoy that privileged stereotype in society. If we don't understand the implications of these acts, we would approve or allow or participate in these activities. The same forces don't act on the Marilyn Monroe's of the world. Or to think about specific leaders: How was Malcolm X idolized? How was Bill Clinton idolized?

Jenn: SU doesn't punish crimes the same way. Drinking: get a ticket, 60 hrs. of community service, academic penalty. 1st Blackface: didn't even follow through on community service. It took someone getting hurt before it became important to the university. The LGBT Resource Center had to come up with ways to handle this because the university had nothing in place. Our hate crime policies are a joke. Students should be more afraid to hit a black or gay student than to drink in front of a frat house. Hate crimes are addressed by saying: "Please don't use the N-word." That was it.

Margaret: If it becomes judicial, it might become harder to address in class. "My RA made such a big deal over this" might shut down conversation. I am worried about the unintended consequences of judicial responses.

Jenn: I'm not sure. Diversity does affect policy and governmental writing. It shouldn't be hard to relate diversity to our curriculum. And if it were judicially backed up, it might motivate students more.

Tim: Is that type of motivation an attempt to controlling behavior or changing beliefs?

Steph: About judicial responses: Isn't this a problem in the first place, being afraid to talk about it or not wanting to confront students? Students shouldn't be babied, even if it scares them away.

Mara: In educational literature, people are starting to change the term zero tolerance to zero indifference. Choosing to no longer just let it go by. It doesn't have to be typical punishment, but it needs to be addressed.

Adrea Jaehnig (LGBT Center): Documenting the whiteboards makes visible the discrimination that students feel. Is the problem the whiteboard? No. It's easy to see them, but they are just a symbol of the problem. By the time it's a crisis situation, the judicial answer can't be the only answer. We need to address our community standards are beliefs. And what students say to each other is more influential than what teachers or administrators say, so we need to educate students on how to talk about these things. Whose responsibility is it to do this? It is often put on the "underrepresented" students, and this isn't right. How much do we want the authority to solve the problem? If we rely on punitive actions, on the authorities, things might not go as quickly or as well as we'd like.

Mahdia: This type of training in classes is best taught in conversation.

Jessica: What will teaching diversity in 105 do? How will this change the university? Or how will the university change? A class won't change beliefs. And students don't seem to care.

Elisa Norris (Ph.D. student, The Writing Program): Diversity is tricky because this is a socialization process. The hesitancy of diversity in classes is that short term changes are short lived. When they go home, things might go back to the way they were before. Until we have conversations that let people address their feelings honestly, and then it might sink in.

Mark: Forcing stuff down our throats doesn't change feelings. There needs to be a way to address diversity without forcing.

Anne: Complicate the dichotomy of, it is either addressed too much or not at all. If students are uncomfortable with one thing, they may well think it is being forced down their throats. We are trying to create an atmosphere that allows people to talk about uncomfortable things.

Brian: The university doesn't do much to promote that conversation. After these bias incidents happen, I feel like attaching that big 'No Place for Hate' sticker to my clothes. The biggest problem is that too many people aren't even aware of what is going on. If you don't read the D.O., you're basically unaware of these incidents unless you hear it from other people. We need to do everything we can to just get people talking. You know how the school gives everybody those 'Real Men Wear Orange' tee shirts? Wouldn't it be better using that money to give everyone a "No Place for Hate" tee shirt? Whenever a hate crime of bias-related incident happens, everyone would start wearing them and telling their friends to wear them, and sooner or later everyone will be talking about it. Unless we find ways like this to communicate these incidents to the people who feel unaffected by them, we're still just preaching to the choir.

Jenn: We already have resources to teach diversity, i.e. women's studies and AAS. >Kayt: AAS and women's studies are part of American History, but they are taught as something separate. They are added onto rather than included in.

Jenn: AAS and Women's Studies should be mandatory.

Representative from Public Safety: I have been here for 34 years. I grew up with blackface as part of everyday life. It was normal. So I have wear two hats when dealing with these incidents. What I try to do is to be a medium for people to say what they have to say and also provide a medium for those who have something to say and don't have a way to say it or can't say it. Most of these things are occurring during the first few weeks of school. Is this something they come here with or are they learning it here? Some of these situations need to get back home to the families of students. Conversations in the homes would help change things in the homes as well.

Tim: These incidents may be part of the process of change. It might be an example of our teaching it. It might be part of the clash of cultures.

Kayt: Concerning the demonstrations following the blackface incident at Halloween: One of the Chancellor's partygoers suggested that the protesters teach them. But they are students. It isn't their job to teach the administration or the rest of the university community/population. It isn't her job as a black person or as a student to educate anyone about anything. It shouldn't be put on, the job of teaching, on the AAS or Latino studies departments. It is the responsibility of the university. There needs to be some sort of affinity between the teacher of the 105 class and the students.

Vivian May (Women's Studies Professor): About "comfort": whose comfort do we value? Whose throat do we care about shoving stuff down? Classrooms aren't safe for everyone, so for whom do we decide to make them comfortable? We need to figure out how to be together uncomfortably.

Dana Harrington (WP Professor): And keeping the conversation going is the key.