A day after essentially dismissing student concerns of racial discrimination as unfounded, Purdue University officials are now investigating instances of hate crimes after the words “white supremacy” and a stick-figure drawing of a body hanging from a tree were found scribbled on a placard and left at the scene an equality march.
Still, school officials late Tuesday added they believe the placard incident was unintentional and the words in question were merely transferred from a sticky note used during an educational seminar. In a statement, administrators admitted police were only now investigating matters as a hate crime because school property was “altered or destroyed and the conduct was apparently motivated by bias.”
Armed with their own data, more than 200 angered students, faculty and staff members took to the streets of West Lafayette this week to make their disgust known. FBI statistics now rank the university second in the nation among public and private institutions for reported hate crimes.
“This is what diversity looks like,” students chanted just steps away from Hovde Hall and the Black Cultural Center, where the drawing was actually discovered. “The people are the power.”
Even Provost Tim Sands felt compelled to join in, later taking the microphone and admitting: “We are not an inclusive environment… I’m sorry Purdue is not yet a psychologically safe place to study for many people.”
This week outbreaks come on the heels of a two-year period beginning in 2011 when overall 19 hate crimes were reported on Purdue campuses, most of them targeting black students. The offenses ranged from assault to intimidation to vandalism of property.
“What this immediately says to me is that Purdue’s campus creates an environment that allows for certain individuals to feel comfortable to commit these hate acts,” said Tyrell Connor, president of the Purdue Graduate Student Association. “My dream would be to actually sit down with top university officials and work together on solving this problem.”
This week, protestors added yet another variable to any other such discussions. Demands also included calls by the Anti-Racism Coalition requesting that the number of minority faculty members be doubled over the next ten years and the requirement that all undergraduate students take at least one course on race and racism.
"All diversity means is difference, unlikeness," Christopher Warren, who instructs courses on African-American studies and sociology at Purdue, said during the protest. "Who cares about diversity when there is no equality?"
The office of Dean of Students Danita Brown also was investigating the incident as a violation of the student code of conduct that could result in expulsion, the news release said.