Eugene weekly., August 03, 2006, Page 13, Image 13

BY KERA ABRAHAM
Up Against a Wall
Who’s responsible for responding
to campus hate crimes?
M
aisie Davis said it happened in
broad daylight behind the Knight
Library on the UO campus last
May. According to her written and verbal
reports, four white men approached from
the opposite direction and started hurling
racial slurs at her. “Nigger!” “Porch mon-
key!”
They pushed her up against the library
wall and formed a half circle around her.
The insults continued. “Slut!” “Fat ass!”
One of the men warned Davis that if she
told anyone about the assault they would
rape her. Then they left.
Davis, 22, an undergraduate Family and
Human Services major, didn’t tell anyone
— at least not right away. “I did my thing,
then went home and bawled my eyes out,”
she said. But as the days passed, her anger
burned deeper. This was not the first time
she’d been subjected to racially motivated
hate at the UO. And despite administrators’
concerned rhetoric, it didn’t seem to
Davis that they planned to do anything
about it.
A
ccording to Davis’ written record, she
has been victim to other acts of
racially motivated verbal assaults on cam-
pus. She alleges that in summer 2005, as she
sat in the UO College of Education court-
yard, four white men asked her to move.
She asked them why; they told her that they
deserved to sit there more than she. She
didn’t move.
They told her to move or they would kill
her. She moved.
She alleges that a few months later, as
she was walking on Kincaid Street by the
UO library, a passing group of five white
men and one white woman yelled racial
slurs at her. She remembers hearing, “Go
back to Africa, nigger.”
She didn’t tell anyone about it right
away. But the next spring, inspired by a
classroom presentation on campus racism,
Davis spoke with college interim dean Mike
Bullis. He referred her to college ombuds-
man Bill Young.
Davis didn’t follow up with Young, but
she drafted a letter and distributed it to col-
lege faculty in May. “When I have told peo-
ple about the racist incidents on the UO
campus, I am accused of playing the race
card,” she wrote, “Like I asked for it or
something. But I did not ask for this. I paid
to get an education and now I am attending a
university where I don’t feel safe.
Something is wrong with that.”
The assault behind the library happened
the next day.
O
n May 18, Davis and three allies from
the College of Education — grad stu-
dent Johnny Lake, FHS Program Director
Daniel Close and assistant professor
Surendra Subramani — met with Bullis,
Interim Dean of Student Affairs Robin
Holmes and a UO Public Safety officer to
discuss the repeated verbal and threatened
physical assaults. “It was pretty clear that
Maisie was needing support, because she
wasn’t feeling safe,” Close said. “The pain
that she was experiencing was just palpa-
ble.”
The next day, Davis, Lake, Subramani
and Bullis met with UO President Dave
Frohnmayer. According to Davis,
Frohnmayer said he was sorry that the as-
saults had occurred, advised her to keep
walking in groups, referred her to the de-
partments of public safety and counseling
and suggested that she join the Black
Student Union. “Then he pushed us out the
door,” Davis said. Frohnmayer would not
comment on the meeting.
A few days later Davis filed a report with
the UO Bias Response Team, the campus
agency responsible for supporting victims
of discrimination. The BRT acknowledged
her report but did nothing more, Davis said.
BRT’s Chicora Martin would not comment,
citing confidentiality concerns.
The assaults didn’t stop. Davis says that
larger question is, who in the administration
is responsible?” Close said. “The proactive
element is crucial here. Especially given the
fact that this [racism] is not something that
cropped up overnight.” He recalled that in
spring 2005, hundreds of students and fac-
ulty demonstrated in the College of
Education courtyard, alleging that the col-
lege at best tolerated, and at worst culti-
vated, racism and cultural insensitivity.
D
avis, seated at a coffee shop near cam-
pus in big silver hoops and rhinestone
sunglasses, spoke bluntly about the hate that
has followed her around campus. But she
also seemed nervous, periodically scanning
the scene around her. She said she was on
constant lookout for the men who assaulted
her behind the library.
She described herself as a target three
times over: She’s African American, a
woman, and disabled (she has cerebral
palsy, a stutter and a reconstructed hip).
“And it has been shown that women with
disabilities are the highest percentage rate of
being a target of violence,” she said matter-
of-factly.
supports are much faster to occur than the
institutional ones.”
“We are deep in support structures,”
Holmes added, noting that a single report of
racially-motivated assault may be referred
to the victim’s academic advisors, campus
police, the Bias Response Team, the Office
of Institutional Equity and Diversity, the
Office of Student Affairs, Student Judicial
Affairs and the Office of Affirmative
Action.
But this bureaucratic web can be as en-
tangling as it is supportive. In Davis’ case,
she was referred to so many offices and had
so many meetings that she began to feel that
she was painfully recounting the same inci-
dents over and over, with few tangible re-
sults.
“That experience of lack of ownership
— the idea that ‘if I have to keep meeting
with people, I’ll eventually give up’ —
that’s frustrating,” Martinez admitted. “That
feeling of being set aside gains momentum
over time, and that’s unfortunate. There
should be a common sense of ownership
when students bring these issues forward.”
The university’s newly adopted
‘When I have told people about the racist incidents on the
UO campus, I am accused of playing the race card. I paid
to get an education and now I am attending a university
where I don’t feel safe. Something is wrong with that.’
—MAISIE DAVIS
on May 30, as she was walking on campus,
two white women threw rocks at her and
called her “nigger.” She reported the inci-
dent to UO Department of Public Safety
(DPS), which did not follow up, she alleged.
The DPS didn’t return EW’s calls.
So Davis held yet another meeting with
her College of Education allies and deliv-
ered yet another letter to Frohnmayer.
“Nothing has changed since our last meet-
ing,” she wrote. “My emotional, mental,
and physical health continues to be endan-
gered … My mother fears for my safety and
well-being at this university.”
Two months later, still no response.
W
hile the administration did little, the
FHS program stepped up. Program
director Close rallied Davis’ classmates to
volunteer as her safety escorts; they
arranged a schedule so that someone would
always accompany her between home,
work and classes. Close also acted as Davis’
liaison with other campus departments,
such as counseling.
It makes sense to Close that the FHS pro-
gram, rather than the central administration,
has taken the front line. “We’re the grass-
roots,” he said. “Maisie’s our student, and
we have moved heaven and earth to be there
for her.”
But FHS’s responsibility is limited to
making sure Davis has the support she
needs to excel in school, Close said. DPS is
in charge of investigating the incidents, and
the Bias Response Team is responsible for
acting on the racism that fueled them. “The
She gave the FHS program credit for ral-
lying behind her, but was disappointed in
the central administration’s lukewarm re-
sponse. She wondered why her friends and
classmates, rather than UO-funded safety
staff, were acting as her escorts. She said the
university needs to invest in more campus
cops and patrols, better crime investigations
and 24-7 shuttle services (the Assault
Prevention Shuttle is only available from 6
pm to midnight on weekdays).
“I’ve gone through the channels of
power, saying ‘I need you to do something
about this,’ and no action has been taken,”
she said. “I’m still living in fear for my life;
I am scared all the time on this campus.
With the administration doing nothing, it
tells these people it’s OK what they’re
doing.”
A
dministrators would not comment on
Davis’ case due to confidentiality
concerns. Davis released FHS Director
Close to speak about her situation, but his
comments are limited to the FHS program’s
role. Diversity Vice-Provost Charles
Martinez and Student Affairs Dean Robin
Holmes agreed only to speak about the is-
sues in general, rather than about Davis’ sit-
uation in particular.
Martinez said that while the university
has a responsibility to respond to all student
complaints, there is no “knee-jerk” protocol
for dealing with reports of racially moti-
vated assault. “It is insufficient to respond to
these incidents on the micro-level, just with
the students,” he said. “But the individual
Diversity Plan makes vague references to
tolerance and safety, instructing campus
support structures to coordinate with one
another. “But really, it’s not anything more
than a document,” Martinez said.
“Changing the campus culture is what this is
really about.”
G
rad student Johnny Lake doesn’t buy
the passive apologies. To him, the UO
administration’s buck-passing of Davis’
complaints reflects larger failings. “In a
sense, Maisie represents the diversity ques-
tion at that university, and the fact that they
still fail to follow up on those issues is a
problem,” he said. “She talked in front of
the dean of the College of Education and the
president of the university, and neither of
them responded in the way [FHS Director]
Dan Close has, which is how they should re-
spond as leaders: addressing these
issues.”
Lake faults administrators at all levels
for referring Davis to other campus agen-
cies with little or no follow-up support.
“What this does is leverage the burden back
to the student who has suffered the mistreat-
ment,” he said. “As long as they can keep it
isolated to individuals like Maisie, it doesn’t
demand a larger institutional response.
There needs to be more direct action from
leadership that sends the message to this
campus that racism will not be tolerated.”
Until then, he said, students like Davis
will keep walking to class with one eye
trained on the shadows, their studies under-
mined by fear.
ew
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