At Indiana State University, and colleges across the nation, students are making their voices heard and speaking out against subtle, and even overt, racism they say they are experiencing on their campuses.
At ISU, those involved with the #freeISU movement believe the campus is not as inclusive and welcoming as it needs to be for its increasingly diverse student body.
They want dialogue, and they’ve also started a petition drive that outlines steps they believe the university should take to improve the campus climate for those diverse groups.
Those steps include: re-establishing the Office of Diversity and creating a vice president for equity and inclusion; increased initiatives to recruit minority faculty and staff; and developing a formal protocol for filing student grievances.
In recent days, high-profile demonstrations have been taking place at colleges across the country, including the University of Missouri and Yale University. At the University of Missouri, students and athletes — including the football team — united in pursuing the ouster of the university president, who resigned Monday after being criticized for failing to address student concerns about diversity.
What is causing the nationwide activism? Observers attribute it to several factors, including the #BlackLivesMatter movement and the current political climate, with candidates such as Donald Trump calling for mass deportation of undocumented immigrants.
Through social media, students know immediately about racial incidents across the country as well as protest movements at other campuses.
”Our students are angry,” says Crystal Reynolds, an adjunct faculty member at ISU who wrote her dissertation on the leadership response to the black student protest movement at ISU in 1969-70. Today’s students are concerned about incidents of police brutality against young people, and Donald Trump’s racist comments about Mexicans, she said.
Her students tell her, “This is not supposed to be happening in 21st Century America with a black president.” From their perspective, “White privilege is alive and well,” she said.
Not only does social media keep students instantly informed about what is happening elsewhere, “Social media has really empowered students,” she said. ISU’s student body has typically been slow in responding to national movements or protests, but with social media, “We’re caught up.”
As campuses, including ISU, have become more diverse in their student enrollment, efforts to make faculty, staff and administration more diverse have not kept pace, she said. To under-represented student groups, “There aren’t enough people who look like them,” she said.
But she defends ISU as being more progressive than many universities in terms of integrating and educating minorities. While she understands students’ perspective that improvement is necessary, ISU “has been ahead of many predominantly white universities,” Reynolds said.
Mary Howard-Hamilton, an ISU faculty member, has described #freeISU as a movement generated by students who sensed some hostility and discrimination, not just in the classroom, but also outside the classroom. She consulted with the group when those involved asked her how they should proceed.
#freeISU encompasses not just black students, but others who feel marginalized including Latinos, international and LGBT students, she said. “This is not a black-white issue ... We want to make sure people understand this is about making sure that ISU is comfortable for everybody.”
Some students describe insensitivity and incivility in the classroom, she said, and they don’t feel support from campus leadership or understanding from the overall student body.
Howard-Hamilton, too, believes that having more diversity among faculty, staff and administrators is a key issue, not just at ISU but at campuses across the country.
She said she meets frequently with students who want to know, “What can we do to impact change and transformation on this campus?” She also finds that “students are more actively engaged in having these really good dialogues now.”
Howard-Hamilton was an activist in college at the University of Iowa, where she protested against the Vietnam War, promoted feminism and also was involved with the black student union.
#freeISU will host a forum at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday at Hulman Memorial Student Union to explain what the movement is about. Among the speakers will be Sam Dixon, who was active in the black student protests at ISU in 1969-70. The program is also expected to include a teleconference with students from the University of Missouri, Howard-Hamilton said.
She believes a significant event that led to #freeISU and a coalition of concerned faculty/staff/administrators related to the elimination of the Office of Diversity on campus. “From there it was a domino effect,” Howard- Hamilton said. The number one request of students, and the employee coalition, is to have a vice president of equity and inclusion that would have its own staff to address diversity issues on campus.
ISU President Dan Bradley said last week he disagrees with #freeISU in its demand for a vice president for equity; he believes recent changes will more effectively address diversity issues.
In recent changes, ISU went from one person in the Office of Diversity to two full-time people — Elonda Ervin in student affairs and Nolan Davis in academic affairs. Ervin focuses on diversity as it relates to students, while Davis will help ISU improve efforts to recruit/retain minority faculty. “We need that expertise really where the work gets done, and it gets done at the division level, not the campus level,” Bradley said last week.
Bradley also said he is “very willing” to talk and meet with representatives of #freeISU. “We are committed to diversity. We’re committed to putting in resources necessary to be successful at diversity. I’m committed to an open dialogue with people who want to see change. I think people of goodwill can disagree on tactics on how to get things done,” Bradley has said.
Rhonda Impink, an ISU associate professor of social work, has seen problems first hand. The program has many minority students from urban communities, but it also has many students from rural areas — and there “have been misunderstandings,” she said. “We have people who are not used to being with one another.”
While she and other faculty work to facilitate understanding, it can be challenging when people are upset. “There is a need for greater discussion and understanding between them.”
Without intentionally being racist, students from rural areas may use words that are offensive to minority students, Impink said.
From Impink’s perspective, “ISU students are protesting the fact they don’t feel valued and respected on campus, and we need a lot more training for all of our faculty, administrators, staff and students” so those from under-represented groups do feel respected and comfortable, she said. Students involved with #freeISU also don’t feel connected to the university.
ISU as well as other universities across the country have to understand that institutional racism exists through policies and practices that exclude some people and reward others, Impink said.
What’s happening at ISU is a microcosm of the entire nation, she says. Racism still exists but appears to be “something our society is not understanding nor wanting to understand,” Impink said.
Katie Lugar, an ISU social work graduate student, is involved both with #freeISU and a campus Undoing Racism Task Force. She is not part of an under-represented group but believes it’s important to be involved so she can help bring about needed changes.
ISU has come a long way and has many resources, but much works needs to be done, both at the more interpersonal level and at the policy level, she says.
While ISU is committed to diversity, and it is a diverse campus, “That doesn’t mean people are treated equally or feel like they are included,” Lugar said. “I think we need to put more focus on equity and inclusion.”
She says she’s seen first-hand instances of students from under-represented groups being treated differently.
According to Crystal Reynolds, ISU leadership in that period of racial strife in 1969-70 responded appropriately to the conflict. Then-President Alan Rankin began meeting with representatives of the black student union and black leaders, and he listened to them.
They had dialogue sessions that involved white and black groups, and they talked about how to solve problems rather than resort to violence. That dialogue led to an African American Cultural Center, a black studies program and more black faculty on campus.
It takes a strong leader and a president who will rise to the challenge, she said. “I think Bradley can do it. I think he is a transformational leader.”
The key is stakeholders must come together and talk. “This is not going away,” said Reynolds, who also is chief researcher for a history of ISU project currently under way.