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ELKINS -- After a racially tinged online incident led to a peaceful student protest Oct. 1 on the Davis & Elkins College campus, the school's administration responded this week with a forum to address the issue.
"About three weeks ago we had a student that chose to repost, on a social media account, a rather offensive racial slur," D&E President Chris Wood told The Inter-Mountain Thursday. "It was certainly very offensive to students of color on our campus, but frankly offensive to a whole lot more of us, including me."
Dozens of D&E students took part in the protest in response to the incident, raising attention about what students said are problems regarding the college's treatment of complaints alleging racism, safety and sexual assault.
On Tuesday, the college hosted a forum for students, faculty members, staff and a guest speaker, Dr. Dedriell Taylor, who is chief Diversity, Equity and Inclusion officer at West Virginia Wesleyan. The forum was closed to the public and the media.
Wood said the forum allowed students to get together and discuss any issues that may arise on campus. He said this was just the first of many events like this that will take place on the campus in the future.
"We broke the students up into discussion groups where they could talk, particularly about the issue we recently had," Wood noted. "Certainly there are some students who were hurt deeply by what was shared (on social media). And it angered some of them and we understand that, as they continue to deal with racism in their lives everyday.
"(Taylor) talked about how we interrupt racism when we see it occurring," Wood said. "And how we do it in ethical and constructive ways in which we can be proactive. She did a great job.
"This was an opportunity for the campus community as a whole to have their voices heard, as well as for us to open a dialog around what is a very difficult conversation. We wanted to let them know about the commitment the college has made and that we are going to continue this process going forward."
One of the students who took part in the Oct. 1 protest, Julianna Singleton, also attended Tuesday's forum, and told The Inter-Mountain she is glad about how the school has responded but said there is more to do.
"I feel like D&E definitely, after the protest, has stepped up," she said. "They hosted a diversity and equity forum on Tuesday that had a mix of professors, faculty members, students and administration. It went fairly well, but as of right now we don't have any other information on anything else planned."
Singleton said she and other students would like the college to be more transparent when it comes to its plans for change, especially about updating the school's code of conduct.
"I feel the school is doing well with preventative measures (such as) by making sure students understand that racism is not OK," she said. "But we still feel that the school is not being very transparent about what happened and what they're planning on doing in the future in terms of our code of conduct, and how they're going to change that.
"They have hinted that it will be changing so in the future people know the exact things that will happen in instances like this. But they haven't been really clear about that, but that might be because they really don't know what that code of conduct is going to look like yet," she said. "We would just like some updates on that and they are not providing that."
Wood said there have been many healthy discussions about racism on campus since the incident.
"We've been able to take a good, hard look at the difficult issue of racism and do our best as a campus community to discuss it in a constructive and positive way," he said. "It's been a productive opportunity for our campus to discuss these issues. Unfortunately, it took a rather painful incident to cause all of that. But as a result of the proactive approach of our students, the dialog that has emerged on the campus is a healthy dialog and something we want to continue."
After the incident, Wood said the first thing he did was issue a statement on behalf of the institution to all faculty, staff and students.
"The statement was basically affirming that racism is a significant problem in our country and that it spills onto our campus," he said. "And that we are committed to doing everything we can to combat it."
The second step Wood made was to make sure all of the school's students were aware of the student code of conduct and the consequences that come with breaking it.
"Any student who violates our student code of conduct, which is the policy that regulates students' behavior on campus, will go through that judicial process with appropriate sanctions levied against him or her," Wood said.
Wood said he understood why so many students were upset, and added he is in full support of the way they made their voices be heard.
"They were certainly upset over that incident and they wanted to make sure that those of us in the college's administration were aware of their feelings," he said of the protest. "They were hoping to see some action as a result of it and I support our students' rights to protest peacefully. That is part of our first amendment rights and we are pleased that our students are learning leadership skills in that way."