Campus tensions in Massachusetts : searching for solutions in the nineties

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Campus Tensions in

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Massachusetts Advisory Committee to the
U.S. Commission on Civil Rights

October 1992

This factfinding report of the 'Massachusetts Advisory Committee to the United States Commission on Civil lights was
prepared for the information and consideration of the Commission. Statements and viewpoints in this report should not
be attributed to the Commission out only to the participants in the factfinding muting, other individuals or documents
cited, or the Advisory Committee.

The United States Commission on Civil Rights

The United States Commission on Civil Rights, first created by the Civil Rights Act of
1957, and reestablished by the United States Commission on Civil Rights Act of 1983, is
an independent, bipartisan agency of the Federal Government. By the terms of the 1983
act, the Commission is charged with the following duties pertaining to discrimination or
denials of the equal protection of the laws based on race, color, religion, sex, age,
handicap, or national origin, or in the administration of justice: investigation of individual
discriminatory denials of the right to vote; study of legal developments with respect to
discrimination or denials of the equal protection of the law; appraisal of the laws and
policies of the United States with respect to discrimination or denials of equal protection
of the law; maintenance of a national clearinghouse for information respecting discrimina-
tion or denials of equal protection of the law; and investigation of patterns or practices of
fraud or discrimination in the conduct of Federal elections. The Commission is also
required to submit reports to the President and the Congress at such times as the
Commission, the Congress, or the President shall deem desirable.

The State Advisory Committees

An Advisory Committee to the United States Commission on Civil Rights has been
established in each of the 50 States and the District of Columbia pursuant to section 105(c)
of the Civil Rights Act of 1957 and section 6(c) of the United States Commission on Civil
Rights Act of 1983. The Advisory Committees are made up of responsible persons who
serve without compensation. Their functions under their mandate from the Commission
are to: advise the Commission of all relevant information concerning their respective
States on matters within the jurisdiction of the Commission; advise the Commission on
matters of mutual concern in the preparation of reports of the Commission to the
President and the Congress; receive reports, suggestions, and recommendations from
individuals, public and private organizations, and public officials upon matters pertinent
to inquiries conducted by the State Advisory Committee; initiate and forward advice and
recommendations to the Commission upon matters in which the Commission shall request
the assistance of the State Advisory Committee; and attend, as observeers, any open
hearing or conference that the Commission may hold within the State.

Campus Tensions in

Massachusetts:
Searching for

Solutions in the

Nineties

Massachusetts Advisory Committee to the
U.S. Commission on Civil Rights

October 1992

This factfinding report of tht Massachusetts Advisory Committee to the United States Commission on Civil "Rights was
prepared for tht information and consideration of the Commission. Statements and viewpoints in this report should not
Be am United to the Commission But only to the participants in the factfinding meeting, other individuals or documents
cited, or the Advisory Committee.

Letter of Transmittal

Massachusetts Advisory Committee to the
U.S. Commission on Civil Rights

Members of the Commission

Arthur A. Fletcher, Chairperson
Charles Pei Wang, Vice Chairperson
William B. Allen
Carl A. Anderson
Mary Frances Berry
Esther Gonzalez-Arroyo Buckley
Blandina Cardenas Ramirez
Russell G. Redenbaugh

Wilfrcdo J. Gonzalez, Staff Director

In September 1991 the Massachusetts Advisory Committee was joined by representatives of
the Committees serving Connecticut and Vermont as they heard almost three dozen speakers
discuss bias-related incidents and campus tensions in Massachusetts and elsewhere in New
England. In February 1992 the Vermont Advisory Committee held a similar factfinding meeting,
as did the Connecticut Advisory Committee in April. Our report, unanimously approved by our
Committee, focuses on Massachusetts and records the discussions of 29 speakers. They were in
panels formed of students, administrators, faculty members, or staff from the University of
Massachusetts (UMASS) at Amherst, the State's flagship campus, or Smith College, a private
institution and one of the Nation's most prestigious women's colleges. Other speakers ranged
from law enforcement officials to representatives of the Massachusetts Department of Educa-
tion and the New England Board of Higher Education. We have supplemented their remarks
with other materials, some of recent publication.

All speakers either agreed that overt bigotry, such as bias-motivated slurs or physical assault,
occurs or assumed that it occurs. Two said that campus incidents have increased around the
Nation, and a member of an international association of campus security officials characterized
the increase as "gigantic." More locally, the UMASS public safety director declared that,
"racism still flourishes on this campus," while a college junior stated, that in her whole life she
had "never experienced as much racism as I have at Smith College. " One speaker offered a profile
of typical perpetrators, describing them as white males in their teens to mid-twenties, while
another added that perpetrators — be they students or outsiders — often are both young and
intoxicated at the time of the incident. Since incidents have been reported at Smith College, it
could be that some females presumably commit them as well.

Of equal concern to the minority student panelists were acts of ignorance by classmates or
others on campus who asked culturally naive questions or showed surprise when minority
students excelled. Two charged abuse by local police. Most student speakers were also troubled
by tardy responses or no response from administrators to grievances voiced by the students.
Several said that the competition for funds to support different cultural centers sometimes
involved campus administrators pitting one minority group against another. The students called
for increased recruitment of minority students and faculty, more financial aid, and reform of
the core curriculum. A Jewish student charged that Jews were precluded from involvement in a

major event on minority concerns, while a Jewish professor at UM ASS reported that Jews have
been assaulted by skinheads and also victimized by "black and brown racism" on campus.

Administrators generally acknowledged that prejudice persists but also pointed to efforts
made to remedy problems including the establishment of cultural centers and student-faculty
committees, changes in curriculum, and recruitment goals to increase the presence of minorities
on campus. Despite occasional notes of pessimism about whether bigotry can be fully eradicated,
the administrators, faculty, and students proposed various remedies, as has the Massachusetts
Advisory Committee. We trust that you will favorably consider all such recommendations
including one by our Committee which urges you to follow up on your October 1990 report and
direct your attention to this national problem again by mid-decade.

Sincerely,

tyvcA Via 7}, o \jvji~'

Dorothy S. Jones, Chairperson
Massachusetts Advisory Committee

Massachusetts Advisory Committee to the
U.S. Commission on Civil Rights

Dorothy S. Jones, Chairperson
Somerville

Richard S. Aldrich
Fall River

Deirdre A. Almeida*
Amherst

Donald M. Bloch
Framingham

Matthew A. Budd
Cambridge

Edward L. Cooper
Roxbury

Cecile Marie Esteves
Holyoke

Dale C. Jenkins, Jr.
Everett

Reginald L. Johnson
Cambridge

Elizabeth L. Price
Worcester

M. Paula Raposa
Somerset

Gladys Rodriguez
Worcester

Jahnvibol D. Tip
Lowell

'Acting Chairperson who moderated the factfinding meeting.

Acknowledgments

The Massachusetts Advisory Committee wishes to thank the staff of the Commission's Eastern
Regional Office for its help in the preparation of this report. The factfinding meeting and summary
report were the principal assignments of Tino Calabia with support from Michele D. Morgan, and
Linda Raufu. Editorial assistance and preparation of the report for publication was provided by
Gloria Hong Izumi. The project was carried out under the overall supervision of John I. Binkley,
Director, Eastern Regional Office.

Contents

1. Introduction 1

Purpose of Committee Project 2

Overview Panel 2

Massachusetts Department of Education 2

Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith 3

Int'l. Assoc, of Campus Law Enforcement Administrate 5

New England Board of Higher Education 6

2. University of Massachusetts at Amherst 8

Office of Provost 8

UMASS Student Panel 9

Black Mass Communications Project 9

Cape Vcrdean Student Alliance 11

United Asian Cultural Center 11

Hillel House 12

Jeffrey L. Pegram 14

UMASS Panel of Administrators 14

Office of Human Relations 14

Office of the Dean of Students 15

UMASS Public Safety Department 17

UMASS Faculty Panel 18

Afro-American Studies Department 18

Legal Studies Department 18

Spanish and Portuguese Department 19

English Department 20

Plant and Soil Sciences Department 21

3. Smith College 22

Smith College Student Panel 22

Indigenous Americans of Smith College 22

Hillel of Smith College 23

Asian Students Association of Smith College 23

Nosotras 24

Student Worker in Admissions 25

Black Students Alliance 25

Smith College Administrator/Faculty Panel 26

Office of the College President 26

Psychology Department 29

Smith College Campus Security Department 31

4. Public Law Enforcement and Legal Panel 32

Massachusetts State Police 32

District Attorney's Office for Northwestern District 32

Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under the Law 33

5. Summary and Recommendations of Speakers 35

6. Findings and Recommendations 38

Appendices 41

A. 1990 College Enrollment by Race 41

B. "How to Survive Campus Bigotry" 42

C. Testimony Offered by Fletcher A. Blanchard 44

1. Introduction

In 199 1 the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights out-
lined a multiyear plan to review the status of bias-
motivated tensions around the United States. As
the national Commission identified six urban
areas from Washington, D.C. to Los Angeles — in
which to hold hearings, three of the Commission's
State Advisory Committees in New England decided
to examine the causes of similar tensions affecting
large and small college campuses in their respective
States. After publishing Bigotry and Violence on
American College Campuses in October 1990, the
Commission had encouraged its Advisory Commit-
tees to consider folio wup projects in their States.

In response, the Massachusetts Advisory Com-
mittee invited delegations from the University of
Massachusetts (UMASS) at Amherst and Smith
College to discuss the issue on September 27,
1991; the Vermont Advisory Committee invited
delegations from the University of Vermont at
Burlington and Middlebury College for similar
talks on February 10, 1992; and the Connecticut
Advisory Committee invited delegations from the
University of Connecticut at Storrs and Wesleyan
University for the final factfinding meeting on
April 27, 1992. (Appendix A provides enrollment
statistics by race for each school.)

Though the sample of higher educational insti-
tutions was limited to six, each Advisory Commit-
tee had selected two schools: the flagship of its
State university system plus a small selective col-
lege with a student body of residents from States
throughout the Nation. In a day-long examina-
tion of the topic, students, administrators, profes-
sors, and other staff where asked whether or not
their institutions experienced bias-motivated
problems, and, if so, what the causes were, how
problems were manifested, what measures were
taken to combat them, what experiences offered
possible solutions for reducing or eventually elimi-
nating campus tensions, and what recommenda-
tions they might offer.

At the kickoff factfinding meeting in Massachu-
setts, all three State Advisory Committees were
represented. Besides hearing from student leaders,
top administrators, concerned faculty members,
and staff of UMASS/Amherst and Smith College,
members from the three Committees benefited by
listening to a top legal officer of the Massachusetts
Department of Education who sketched what
many students experience before graduating from
high school, an attorney and national conference
coordinator who described harassment occurring
around the United States, and a board director of
a national association of campus security officials
who shared his perspective.

For the late afternoon session, the Region I Di-
rector and staff of the Office of Civil Rights of the
U.S. Department of Education had organized and
led a special roundtable discussion. It involved a
Region I representative of the Community Rela-
tions Service of the U.S. Department of Justice, a
project staff member of the New England Board
of Higher Education, the executive director for the
Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law of
the Boston Bar Association, and other experts and
concerned parties. Some months later, supple-
menting the panels of undergraduate students, ad-
ministrators, faculty, and staff of the four schools
appearing during the factfinding meetings in the
other two States were the chief executive officer of
a State human relations commission, local law
enforcement administrators, and teaching person-
nel from a school of social work and a medical
school — all of whom added to the wealth of data
upon which the three Advisory Committees could
draw for their reports.

This report focuses primarily on presentations
by the 27 panelists who appeared during the two
earlier sessions at the University of Massachusetts
and by 2 who participated in the final session
there. Some presentations are supplemented by
media accounts and/or other documents related to
the topic, two published as recently as August

1 U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, Bigotry and Violence on American College Campuses, October 1990.

1992. Because other late afternoon participants
were affiliated with other colleges or agencies be-
yond Massachusetts, their contributions will be
reflected in the two Advisory Committee reports
on campus tensions elsewhere in New England.

Purpose of Committee Project

Deirdre A. Almeida, the Acting Chairperson of
the Massachusetts Advisory Committee, moder-
ated the factfinding meeting hosted by UMASS
on its main campus in Amherst. She observed that
the factfinding meeting was taking place almost 5
years to the date of the outbreak of racial violence
triggered after the Boston Red Sox lost to the
New York Mcts in the final game of the 1986
World Series, and added that some measure of
success had reportedly been achieved in trying to
lessen antagonisms among racial and religious
groups.

But Almeida also pointed out that less than 2
weeks prior to the factfinding meeting, the Boston
Globe reported that "nearly a third of all [Massa-
chusetts students] recently surveyed have experi-
enced racial, ethnic, or gender offenses." While
the Advisory Committee members from the three
States expected to learn about any such problems
affecting the schools, Almeida emphasized their
hope that they would also learn about "current
programs intended to combat campus intolerance,
as all of us search for solutions in the nineties."

Overview Panel

Massachusetts Department of
Education

Representing the Massachusetts Department of
Education, Acting General Counsel Sandra L.
Moody said that it is not easy to explain why
some elementary and secondary school students
harbor misconceptions about members of other
races and religions while their classmates may

show a sense of respect for diversity. One answer,
she suggested, is that:

some students have more respect for others simply because
they have had more experience and have encountered
teachers who are more open to issues of diversity, and I
think that is the key to the whole problem, especially on the
elementary and secondary level, which in turn leads into
the college level.

Thus, education is critical to remedying the situ-
ation, and she emphasized her department's com-
mitment to help all students learn about the basic
similarities among people and the importance of
showing respect for the differences among them.

Over the last 15 to 20 years, her department has
engaged in various curriculum initiatives. One in-
volved the World of Difference curriculum set up
by the Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith in
which teachers received indepth training in devel-
oping curricula on racial and cultural differences;
the program also showed teachers how their own
behavior may have been affected by their personal
cultural biases and what could be done to modify
any such behavior. Teachers learned ways of get-
ting students to become better aware of what other
people feel and how to deal with differences
among people. Another initiative involved a joint
project with the Civil Liberties Union of Massa-
chusetts. Entitled the Bill of Rights Education
Project, it incorporated a number of seminars for
students as well as teachers at the elementary and
secondary school levels. The aim was to make
them aware of the constitutional protections avail-
able to them and to others.

The State board of education has also given
grants to teachers to develop curricula around di-
versity and the needs of a multicultural student
population. Conflicts and fights among students in
middle and high schools — which may not all have
started as bias-motivated but which "escalated
into racial confrontations" — gave rise to curricu-
lum efforts to prevent violence. A recent such out-

2 Sec, for example, Matthew L. Wald, "Racism Blamed for Brawl at U. of Massachusetts," New York Times, Feb. 6, 1987. The article
deals with the 52-page, undated "Report on University of Massachusetts Investigation," authored by Frederick A. Hurst, then a member
of the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination. Almeida's statement and most other statements in this report are from the of-
ficial transcript of the Sept. 27. 1991, transcript. A few statements and other information are from sources cited in the text and/or in the ap-
propriate footnotes.

3 Charles A. Radin, "Despite 'PC" Trend, Offenses Continue," Boston Globe, Sept. 15, 1991, p. B-36 (hereafter cited as ".
Continue"). UMASS/Amherst students were among the 569 students interviewed for the Boston Globe poll.

Offenses

break of incidents occurred at Randolph High
School which involved "a variety of explana-
tions." But in any case, Moody stressed, the prob-
lem then becomes:

how do you stop these things from happening again? . . .
The real effort is not to go in when these incidents occur
but to . . . try to prevent these things from happening in
the future, to try to encourage student awareness of each
other and teacher awareness of cultural, racial, ethnic, and
religious differences among students ... in the hopes that
we can by the time these students reach the college cam-
pus, we have essentially tried to nip [the problem] in the
bud. . . .

However, because of economic conditions af-
fecting the Commonwealth and the local school
districts, such efforts have been severely cut since
staff development budgets "are usually the first to
be cut, or among the first to be cut," when re-
sources become scarce. Moody closed by saying
that "though facing very, very tough times
ahead," she hoped that the department could re-
sume the efforts of the past "because now they are
needed more than ever."

How much more might be indicated by a No-
vember 1990 issue of Education Week which re-
ported on a nationwide opinion survey by Louis
Harris and Associates. The survey revealed that,
"a majority of high school students have wit-
nessed or heard about racial incidents with violent
overtones, and nearly half would either join in or
approve the action. . . ." Asked what they would
do if they found their friends "stirring up trouble
over some racial or religious group," 30 percent
replied that they might possibly join in, while "17
percent said they might agree with the action and
that the victimized group 'deserves what it gets.'"

Troubling in a somewhat different vein was a
Washington Post article on race relations appear-
ing earlier in the same month as the Massachu-
setts Advisory Committee's factfinding meeting.

The writer noted the importance of discussing
matters of racial differences even with preschool-
ers. Given the dominance of white society in
America, black children, for example, can develop
harmfully poor self-images. For this reason, "Par-
ents should teach their children about race at an
early age . . . because usually around age 3 chil-
dren begin showing a preference for whites."

More recently, a national survey by Peter D.
Hart Research Associates was described in an
April 1992 issue of the Chronicle of Higher Educa-
tion; this survey found that, "a plurality of white
youths now in college or who have completed col-
lege and two-thirds of their black counterparts say
race relations are 'generally bad.'"

Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith

Attorney Sally J. Greenberg, of the Boston of-
fice of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) of
B'nai B'rith, said that most of her attention is
focused on New England, but that in 1989 she had
coordinated a national conference on campus ten-
sions for the ADL. She also noted that the ADL
was established in 1913 and has been committed to
fighting anti-Semitism and injustice and advocat-
ing fair treatment for all people. "We are not just
concerned with incidents directed against Jews.
We can't be, because they are all interrelated."

With regard to anti-Semitism, since 1978, ADL
has compiled a list of incidents — swastika graffiti,
broken windows, anti-Semitic notes under the
door — that have occurred across the Nation.
Greenberg explained that the incidents include
vandalism against Jewish homes, businesses, and
institutions such as synagogues and Hillel build-
ings on college campuses. Verbal or written ha-
rassment is also recorded, such as the several hun-
dred phone calls which one Northeastern
University student made over a 3-month period to
a nearby realtor and to campus gay and lesbian
groups. The perpetrator was apprehended and
prosecuted by the U.S. attorney in Boston for the

4 Millicent Lawton, "High School Students Say Racial Incidents Common," Education Week, Nov. 28, 1990, p. 6.

5 Yvonne Shinhoster Lamb, "Race Relations & Preschoolers: It's Never Too Early to Begin Building Self-Esteem," Washington Post,
Sept. 9, 1991.

6 Arthur J. Kropp, president. People for the American Way, "Colleges Must Find Ways to Eradicate Racial Divisions," Chronicle of
Higher Education, Apr. 22, 1992, p. B-3.

7 See Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith, ADL Conference on Campus Prejudice, 1990 (hereafter cited as ADL Conference on
Campus Prejudice).

Federal violation of using the mail and phones to
threaten the Realtor and the gay and lesbian
groups. Sentenced just 2 weeks before the
factfinding meeting, the perpetrator was expected
to serve about a year in prison.

Greenberg said that the first six campus inci-
dents were reported in 1984, doubling to 12 in
1985 and increasing to 16 in 1986. A reduction to
14 occurred in 1987, and that drop and other
occasional reductions indicate that the overall
growth in the annual count may not just be due to
an increase in reporting, as some have suggested.
In any case, the number rose to 33 in 1990, and
with only incomplete counts from some of ADL's
30 offices, 17 incidents had been tallied for 1991
up to the month of the factfinding meeting. As to
the total number including noncampus incidents
across the Nation, there were 1,686 reported in
1991, an 18 percent increase over 1990 and an
increase for the fourth successive year.

She pointed out that the 95 campus-related in-
cidents in 1990 represented a substantial increase
over the 69 that had been reported in 1989; be-
cause the 1990 incidents were reported by only 57
campuses, there were double or triple incidents at
some schools. In her opinion, one of the most
egregious took place at Macalester College in St.
Paul, Minnesota. Three self-described skinheads
who were not students at the college entered the
kosher kitchen of a dormitory and left anti-Se-
mitic graffiti and a kosher cooking utensil filled
with their excrement. After their arrest, the three
pleaded guilty, and were sentenced. At the Uni-
versity of Wisconsin in 1990, a wave of anti-Se-
mitic episodes erupted after a series of attacks had
taken place against individuals in the city of Mad-
ison, where 20 incidents were reported in July.

Also in 1990, but more local to New England,
at a State college in Vermont, a Jewish dean of
students was continuously harassed by phone,
mail, and fliers. At a private college in New
Hampshire, again in 1990, an edition of an inde-
pendent student newspaper appeared with a
highly offensive quotation from Adolf Hitler. The
quotation appeared on the newspaper's masthead

on the holiest of Jewish holidays, Yom Kippur.
According to another local newspaper, the student
newspaper had invited the ADL and the college to
join it in investigating the incident. During ADL's
investigation, the students at the paper denied
any responsibility for the incident, reported
Greenberg.

She said that at UMASS/Amherst itself, early in
the 1991 fall semester, a flier was circulated about
the Professor Leonard Jeffries case at the City Col-
lege of New York; the flier proclaimed that
"Third World Affairs and the black community
will hold Hillel and the Jewish people" responsible
for any harm that might befall Jeffries. Greenberg
stressed that she believed Third World Affairs and
the blacks on campus who declared that they had
no knowledge of who circulated the flier, but the
incident heightened the kind of tensions felt by the
Jewish students at UMASS, nonetheless.

Asked who were the perpetrators of the kind of
incidents which she described, Greenberg replied
that they "are generally white males between the
ages of 16 and 24. . . . Of course, in the vast ma-
jority of cases, there are no perpetrators ever
found." Greenberg further noted that she has ob-
served so-called skinheads processed by the courts
and has had the opportunity to ask some whether
they knew any blacks or Jews and what motivates
them. She reported that, "Shockingly they say,
'No.' But then they know they hate us. That's one
thing they know. They don't know why."

Speaking more generally, Greenberg remarked
that, "Part of the problem is that people don't talk
to each other. People don't have the opportunities
to really try to get to know who each other are. . . .
A lot of these incidents are caused by ignorance,
really a lack of understanding about one another's
cultures." Consequently, she endorsed the idea
that students should be required to take courses
explaining different cultures, a mission that col-
leges are uniquely suited to accomplish.

On the other hand, Greenberg also remembered
that after the 1986 World Series games incident,
she and others who proposed responses to the situ-
ation recommended getting people together to

8 In March 1991 a senior writer for Black Issues in Higher Education reported that, "statistics reveal that one of every four students of
color on white campuses cannot get through an academic year without experiencing some racially-motivated incident." Joye Mercer, Black
Issues in Higher Education, Mar. 14, 1991, p. 2.

9 See, for example, John Tierncy, "For Jeffries a Penchant for Disputes," New York Times, Sept. 7, 1991, p. A-28.

talk, establishing hotlines, organizing joint stu-
dent projeets, and the like. She also stressed that
on the issue of blaek and Jewish confliets discus-
sion must extend beyond just talks. "I have par-
ticipated in so many black/Jewish dialogues. Dia-
logues alone are not particularly productive."

Instead, she encouraged the development of a
joint agenda, perhaps a project that both groups
would become committed to. "You can't just
come together to talk about conflicts." She said
that any such joint enterprise would apply to
other racial or religious groups trying to overcome
differences as well. In closing, Grecnberg recom-
mended an ADL booklet containing suggestions
for resolving campus tensions problems. Whereas
Moody had earlier referred to ADL's World of
Difference Program, Greenberg mentioned that
ADL now has a Campus of Difference Program
which was to be used in Vermont as followup to
the Vermont campus incident she had mentioned.
Regarding how parents can work with their own
children, in 1989 ADL published "What to Tell
Your Child About Prejudice and Discrimina-
tion."1'

Intl. Assoc, of Campus Law
Enforcement Administrators

Raymond C. McKcarney, the region I director
of the International Association of Campus Law
Enforcement Administrators (IACLEA) and also
the director of public safety at the University of
Massachusetts in Dartmouth, Massachusetts,
agreed with Grecnberg that there has been a sig-
nificant increase in campus tensions incidents.
Having consulted his counterparts on the west
coast, he described the increase as "gigantic."
Nevertheless, on his own campus there have been
fewer tensions incidents, but they are more vio-
lent. Like Moody, McKxarncy believed that edu-
cation is the key not just for training students in
junior high and high school in how to be more
tolerant, but also police officers. "We have got to
train [the police] that serve us. We have got to

teach them to be more sensitive and how to inter-
act with different cultures rather than treating ev-
erybody the same across the board."

He said that his own campus has begun organ-
izing a cultural diversity week each year to educate
the university population, including his own public
safety department. Moreover, he stated that:

we have to spend a lot more time teaching police officers to
be tolerant of different situations. We all saw the incident
that happened in Los Angeles with the Los Angeles Police
Department. ... I think we better take a good long look at
how we train the police. They have got to learn to be more
tolerant than what I think we have now trained them to be
in . . . Massachusetts.

Like Moody, he decried the fact that the eco-
nomic problems affecting the Commonwealth
have unfortunately led to a slackening in the effort
to educate people to become more tolerant. "Less
Federal money means less local and State money,"
stated McKearney. And, though new students
enter college each year, "we don't follow up and
train them. That's where we are dropping the
ball."

On the drop in Federal support for higher edu-
cation and the drop in State support, an August
1992, New York Times article noted that, accord-
ing to a spokesperson for the American Council of
Education, the Federal cuts in many domestic pro-
grams during the 1980s forced the States to divert
their discretionary higher education funds "to
mandated responsibilities in areas like highways,
transportation, prisons, medicaid, and even pri-
mary and secondary schools. ..." The article fur-
ther pointed out that "... a record number of
students are enrolled in colleges and universities
across the country . . . ," and that the increase in
the number of 18-year-old freshman is expected to

.. 12 '

continue.

10 In December 1986 Grecnberg proposed several recommendations to then-Commissioner Frederick A. Hurst of the Massachusetts
Commission Against Discrimination, who had been invited by the UMASS chancellor to investigate the World Series games incident.
Leonard Zakim, executive director, and Sally Greenberg, civil rights director, Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith, letter to Hurst,
Dec. 15. 1986.

1 1 "What to Tell Your Child About Prejudice and Discrimination," Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith, 1989.

12 Karen DeWitt, "Colleges Seeing More Students but Less Money," New York Times, Aug. 5, 1992, p. B-8.

New England Board of Higher
Education

Emorcia V. Hill, assistant director of the Eq-
uity and Pluralism Action Program of the New
England Board of Higher Education (NEBHE),
described her program as a rcgionwide effort
aimed at increasing the number of black, Hispa-
nic, and Native American students and faculty at
New England's institutions of higher education. It
was developed as a result of a special 1989
NEBHE report, Equity and Pluralism, that had
documented that racial minorities were signifi-
cantly underrepresented on New England cam-
puses and that racist behavior was widespread.

Hill stated that Equity and Pluralism generally
aims at increasing the number of minorities on
campuses. The underlying rationale for the proj-
ect is that prejudices, myths, and misunderstand-
ings can be overcome as people from different
races and cultures coexist and become increas-
ingly familiar with one another. At the outset,
blacks and Hispanics were the primary target
groups. But 2 years after the project began it was
expanded to include Native Americans and some
Asian American groups. Besides students, the
project directly involves the trustees and presi-
dents of the institutions, and the affirmative ac-
tion and multicultural affairs personnel in various
capacities.

Another effort attempts to establish a student
support network so as to render New England
more hospitable and welcoming to minority stu-
dents. When Hill considers that there are only two
NEBHE staff carrying out these efforts among the
260 institutions throughout New England — so
many with different levels of awareness and will-
ingness to address diversity issues — she sometimes
looks upon it as an "overly ambitious and at times
an almost impossible task."

On the other hand, one of the "most pleasur-
able projects" for Hill is a major program compo-
nent aimed at making New England more hos-
pitable to minority students. Called the New
England Role Model Network, it brings together
approximately 350 students from high schools
through graduate and professional schools who
meet at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
for one day each fall.

We try to build a role model network, an educational pipe-
line, a mentor pipeline. . . . Today we are calling [the proj-
ect] our Mutual Aide Society because it is essentially a way

of students coming together and sharing strategies about
how you survive and succeed on New England's predomi-
nantly white campuses.

The project also links students with "distin-
guished faculty role models who are black, Hispa-
nic, and Native Americans. . . " On that day
"there is a lot of energy created," and students
who often are not aware of good role models find
successful minority faculty role models readily
available to them. The students ask:

"How did you do it? What courses did you take? How did
you survive emotionally? Who mentored you? Who
supported you? How did you deal with your family?" It's
basically a very, very informal setting, but what it does for
the student is that it restores hope and gives them a sense of
perspective.

Although the day-long event features several
panel discussions and workshops, it is basically an
informal setting. High school students can see un-
dergraduate students who are surviving and
achieving; undergraduates can see graduate stu-
dents, who are similarly situated. Hill reported
that one black female community college student
who aspired to become a physician told Hill that
until that day she had never seen a black female
doctor. In like manner, for Native American stu-
dents Hill said that she "struggle[s] very hard to
find good faculty role models who are Native
American. The reality is that they are out there."
After such network events, NEBHE encourages
each State to replicate the event at its own level.
Schools in Vermont have done so, said Hill, and in
Maine, "where poor indigenous whites are consid-
ered underrepresented in their educational system,
they are also included in the network."

Another aspect of Equity and Pluralism focuses
on recruitment of new faculty. Hill said that edu-
cational institutions have claimed, "We can't find
good minorities," when asked why they may have
only one minority faculty member or only one
Hispanic in the Spanish department. To answer
the need NEBHE, at the time of the factfinding
meeting, was developing a "directory that lists al-
most 400 doctoral students coming up through the
pipeline. . . . We have minority students pursuing
medical degrees, joint M.D./Ph.D degrees, [stu-
dents] who are in biochemistry, the humanities,
and the social sciences." Upon completion, the di-
rectory will be shared with the presidents or aca-

demic vice presidents at institutions of higher edu-
cation.

Hill also spoke of the "depth and degree of iso-
lation that students feel," telling her, "Tm the
first in the department. I'm the only one. I
thought there was going to be more of us; they
brought me here under a false pretext." To en-
courage institutions to help reduce or eliminate
such feelings of isolation among minority stu-
dents, Hill appeals to the self-interest of the insti-
tutions, telling them that to survive through the
nineties, they will have to work to accommodate
more minorities and women. She also believed
that some institutions are making strides such as
the University of Massachusetts which:

is far ahead of the pack in that it has embraced a multi-
cultural curriculum. . . . [UMASS] is one of the few cam-
puses beginning to take the issue very seriously and dealing
with it in terms of curriculum, which is very unusual.
Brown University has the Brown Blueprint, a student-
driven diversity plan. Smith College has its own mandate.
More and more institutions are beginning to embrace the
whole diversity issue.

Noting that NEBHE has counterparts in other
regions of the Nation, Hill pointed out that the
Southern Regional Education Board (SREB) is-
sued a 1990 study called Racial Issues on Campus:
How Students View Them. According to the
SREB, the issue in the South was more of a major-
ity-minority dichotomy; wherever there is such a
relationship, the "minority always feel isolated and
alone and oppressed, regardless of race." Thus,
in the South, white students on predominantly
black campuses experienced problems similar to
problems encountered by black students on pre-
dominantly white campuses.

In contrast, NEBHE found that the problem in
New England was more of a white-minority issue,
and racism is a problem, according to Hill. Thus,
NEBHE has been attempting to introduce more
blacks, Hispanics, and Native Americans onto
New England campuses in the ways that she had
described.

13 Ansley A. Abraham, Racial Issues on Campus: How Students View Them, Southern Regional Education Board (Atlanta), 1990, p. 13.
Analyzing data from over 4.583 respondents, the author writes, "... a student's race is often not the major factor in determining his or her
opinion or perception about campus climate. Instead, it seems that these opinions or perceptions arc determined more by the student's
membership in the minority or majority group on campus and, to a lesser extent, by the type of institution they attend."

2. University of Massachusetts at Amherst

The university does not really understand us, and it does not understand itself. If
you want to be multicultural, don't look at me, look at yourself first. If you want
better relations on campus, look at white racism and why relations are so poor.

Alexander Nguyen, Student
University of Massachusetts

[Students] are literally unprepared in many ways for the kind of cultural, racial, and
ethnic diversity [UMASS] offers, and they have had no preparation in high school.
They have had health education, physical education, and driver's education univer-
sally, but not multicultural education. As a consequence, we as an institution are
placed in the position of having to do remedial multicultural education for huge
numbers of students every year. . . .

Grant Ingle, Director
UMASS Office of Human Relations

Office of Provost

After being introduced by Almeida, Acting Pro-
vost Glen Gordon welcomed the Advisory
Committee representatives and their staff as
well as the other factfinding meeting participants. He
acknowledged that UMASS/Amherst has "had our
share of . . . racial and religious conflict" and that
efforts to address the problem began in earnest in the
sixties among the residential colleges. Ten years
prior to the factfinding meeting, the Chancellor's
Commission on Civility in Human Relations was or-
ganized as a group of faculty, students, and staff
meant to advise the UMASS administrators on is-
sues of bias. Soon afterwards three civility commis-
sion recommendations were implemented involving:
the development of a general education curriculum
requiring all students to take two social and cultural
diversity courses; increasing the amount of co-
curricular programs for faculty, students, and staff
on issues of race, religion, gender, and sexual orien-
tation; and opening an office of human relations to
maintain discussions and encourage institutional
changes.

But those and later efforts did:

not put an end to racial and religious conflicts .... They
have, however, changed the way we think about these is-
sues and how we respond to them. They have also con-
vinced us of the continuing need to explore these issues
openly and frankly.

Thus, UMASS welcomed the opportunity to
host the factfinding meeting, Gordon concluded.

Adding helpful details to the provost's sum-
mary is a 1988 Washington Post national survey of
campus tensions which focused primarily on
UMASS/Amherst and a February 1988 takeover
of the New Africa House at UMASS. The article
cited a participant in a similar takeover 18 years
earlier, who observed that the students involved in
1988 "worked out their demands with a belief that
the system would work for them" in contrast to
how protesting students felt in 1970. The reporter
also interviewed two protest leaders, a black male
who said, "Racism is a serious problem here, but
we are far ahead of other schools," and a Puerto
Rican female, who suggested that, "the university
has made a good start and that the campus is alive
with opportunities for minorities students." As
shall be seen below, students and others at the
factfinding meeting voiced differing opinions on
the current situation.

1 Michael Rezcndcs, "Campus Minorities: Confronting Racism With Mature Methods," Washington Post, Apr. 19, 1988, p. A-3.

8

UMASS Student Panel

Black Mass Communications Project

James Arthur Jemison represented the Black
Mass Communications Project, which he de-
scribed as one of the largest organizations on
campus. He stated that when a black or other mi-
nority student graduates from UMASS/ Amherst
or a similar State or private school elsewhere, that
student has earned two degrees one for rigorous
academic work, the second for having survived "a
lot of negative hatred on the part of faculty, staff,
and other students." The racism is systemic and
sometimes overt with blacks and other minority
students subjected to slurs while walking down the
street or as targets of racist notes.

On the other hand, Jemison acknowledged
that:

oftentimes people who are perpetrating [bias-motivated in-
cidents] and acting out are not acting out of knowledge.
They are acting out of ignorance. Maybe there is a student
or a professor who has really low expectations of your
performance, which can often be as equally destructive as
some of the overt forms.

For example, a teacher might say, "This is re-
ally good work; I have not seen a black student
perform this way before."

Jemison noted that more subtle things can hap-
pen, too. "You might wonder why you do not get
financial aid, or why you cannot seem to make
enough money to come back to the university."
He then also referred to "certain conditions ... in
the way that Massachusetts is set up." Having re-
cently visited a friend in a predominantly black
neighborhood in Boston, he crossed the railroad
tracks and found himself in a white neighbor-
hood. Though not as it was in the past, urban
segregation obviously persists, said Jemison, add-
ing that white students who come to college from
suburban communities may also lack experience
interacting with blacks and other minorities, just
as black students coming from black neighbor-
hoods may lack experience dealing with whites.

Thus, conditions in the broader society must be
addressed along with the conditions that exist at
UMASS and other colleges.

In terms of urban demographics, a July 1991
Washington Post article analyzed Census Bureau
figures and showed that of the major cities in the
northeast only Boston and New York City showed
appreciable increases in the influx of blacks. The
latter gained by 16.4 percent between 1980 and
1990, but Boston's black population gained by
35.6 percent over the same period. Regarding
school segregation, in January 1992 the New York
Times reported on a study released by the Na-
tional School Boards Association which indicated
that, "it is in the North's urban centers and sub-
urbs and in the West that minority youngsters find
themselves increasingly in separate and unequal
schools." Even where minorities were moving into
the suburbs, a pattern of segregated schools has
often repeated itself. Shortly afterwards, a front
page article in the March 1992 Forum, a publica-
tion of the National Institute Against Prejudice
and Violence, asserted that:

Most children in America still grow up in communities that
are segregated by race and socioeconomic status; they still
attend segregated schools, places of worship, and youth
programs. The average American child has very little direct
contact with people who are different. . . Meaningful ef-
forts at multicultural education are an exception in most
schools. Even when multicultural curriculum materials are
available, often they are given low priority or presented by
untrained, sometimes resentful teachers.

During the factfinding meeting, Jemison also
noted that the fear among college students is also a
result of the hostile climate resulting from eco-
nomic conditions. "In America, unfortunately
many working-class people are competing against
one another for the same jobs, the same money."
The byproduct of animosity, race-baiting, and fear
occurring around the Nation:

is pervasive and makes things a lot worse between the races
on campus. . . . There is a great fear among many students

2 Barbara Vobcjda and D'Vcra Cohn, "Blacks Left Northern States for Boom Areas in '80s," Washington Post, July 5, 1991, p. A- 1.

3 Karen DeWitt, "The Nation's Schools Learn a Fourth R: Re-segregation," New York Times, Jan. 19, 1992. Sec also Mary Jordan,
"Big-City Schools Became More Segregated During 1980s, Study Says," Washington Post, Jan. 9, 1992.

4 National Institute Against Prejudice & Violence, Forum. March 1992, p. 1 and p. 9.

that I am going to take somebody's job or [factfinding
meeting student panelist] Malkes Gomes is going to take
somebody's job.

Meanwhile, colleges have introduced the multi-
culturalism concept. Jemison viewed it as a sound
idea, but the manner in which it is being intro-
duced at UMASS/Amherst and other colleges "is
indicative of the kind of feeble support that it has
been given." He said, for example, that Civility
Week gave recognition to multiculturalism. He
believed that it was begun in reaction to the 1986
World Series incidents; however, in 1989 it in-
volved "an awful lot of advertising, an awful lot
of discussion, and an awful lot of talk, but very
little action." He judged it of questionable value,
and it was not repeated in 1990 or 1991. Jemison's
opinion seemed a milder echo of one voiced in a
front-page Washington Post article in 1990. In
that article, the then-student government presi-
dent at UMASS, a black female, was quoted as
saying, "We've had the Hurst report, multicultu-
ral reports, civility weeks — it's all a bunch of
bull."

Jemison explained that he has been a resident
assistant on campus for 2 years holding "a very,
very good position." Other black resident assis-
tants and he belong to a caucus, and recently
some discussed an incident affecting one of them.
After being attacked by a white student, a black
resident assistant was blamed by the resident di-
rector for the incident, despite the fact that
witnesses confirmed that the assistant had been
"minding his own business" when the white stu-
dent "jumped across the table and attacked him."

He also reported that he has entered buildings
where the elevators were filled with giant swasti-
kas aimed at Jewish students, black students, and
gay students, graffiti "undiscussed and un-
commented on in the news." He has also wit-
nessed harassment by police officers of his black
friends who were driving under the speed limit in
legally registered cars and "being stopped for no
reason at all." Such incidents have been recorded
at the department of public safety where they can

be verified, said Jemison. In a March 1992 issue of
the monthly magazine, USA Today, a specialist in
campus bigotry wrote that:

In many universities, male minority students complain that
campus police officials are more likely to stop and question
them than they do whites or women. Sometimes, campus
police use racial slurs, and false detention cases (e.g., pre-
suming the African American student in an interracial
brawl is the culprit) have resulted in lawsuits.

Jemison mentioned that in one class in his ma-
jor area of study, he was the only black student.

Needless to say, whenever an issue about a black person
came up, the teacher would ask a question, and peoples'
heads would turn to me in expectation of an answer. I'm
. . . willing to educate people occasionally, but that is not
something I should be forced to do in a classroom set-
ting. . . . Or, if you say something incorrect in class, it is
sort of assumed that you are the representative of an infe-
rior people, and that's a feeling I don't think many other
students can confess to, having to testify for the entire race.

To change the climate at UMASS/Amherst,
Jemison recommended that more minority stu-
dents and faculty be recruited, with the students
given more support and financial aid — not just
taking them in, giving them some financial aid,
and then forcing them to have to come up with the
rest of the money themselves. Instead of "spending
so much money on civility weeks which are great
intellectually," he urged spending it on going into
African American and Latino neighborhoods to
recruit students and then providing sufficient fi-
nancial aid to help those students stay in school.

At the start of 1989 the New England Board of
Higher Education also recommended more finan-
cial aid for low-income black and Hispanic stu-
dents. Its recommendation was based on a finding
that:

Inadequate financial aid is a barrier for low-income stu-
dents in many areas of the region and accounts in large
part for the disappointing rate of participation of blacks

5 David Maraniss, "University Tries to Mend Racial Divisions; Antagonism Persists in Amherst, Where Brawl Led to 'Civility Week,'"
Washington Post, Mar. 7, 1990, p. 1.

6 Kenneth S. Stern, "Battling Bigotry on Campus," USA Today: the Magazine of the American Scene, March 1992, p. 62 (hereafter
cited as "Battling Bigotry on Campus").

10

and Hispanics in New England undergraduate and gradu-
ate study.

Because of Federal cuts in student aid since
1980, "the Boston and Amherst campuses of the
University of Massachusetts, for example, have
experienced great difficulty in recruiting minority
students at both locations," wrote the board.

Cape Verdean Student Alliance

Malkes Gomes represented the Cape Verdean
Student Alliance which he said is composed of
students whose ancestors began coming from
Cape Verde, a country off the coast of western
Africa, since its whaling ships sailed off the Amer-
ican coast 150 years ago. Few know who the Cape
Verdeans are, even though there are as many as
350,000 in New England and, 4 or 5 years prior to
the factfinding meeting, there had been at least
150 Cape Verdean students at UMASS/Amherst.

Gomes regretted that there were currently only
40 Cape Verde students on campus and 3 faculty
or staff. He explained that cuts in financial sup-
port and other resources have resulted in fewer
Cape Verdean applicants and in dropouts among
those who do enroll. He also pointed out that
Cape Verdeans are descended from a mixture of
Portuguese and Africans and so exhibit a range of
skin colors. For some, however, this has meant
that "we are not too black, for other people, we
are too white" and have been brainwashed by Eu-
ropeans.

Like Jemison, Gomes had served as a resident
assistant. Before assuming their duties, resident
assistants must take a class in social diversity.
Gomes suggested that all freshmen should have to
take the course. Like Jemison, he reported inci-
dents of students being stopped by the police due
to their color, in this instance Cape Verdean stu-
dents. The previous year, he had been stopped at
1:00 in the morning while driving with a friend. As
Gomes spoke in Creole to his friend, the police
pointedly told him to speak English.

On another occasion, Gomes was walking and
carrying a bag somewhat larger than a backpack,
and two police cars with lights flashing stopped in

front of him and a police van in back of him.
Gomes asked the officers why they stopped him,
and they explained that a house had been burglar-
ized in Amherst and a computer was stolen.
Gomes wondered how a computer would have fit
in his bag and why the police were around campus
and stopped him. His own answer was that the
general attitude of the police and people on cam-
pus is, "What are you doing here? You don't be-
long."

United Asian Cultural Center

Representing the United Asian Cultural Center,
Alexander Nguyen began by trying to dispel the
myth that Asian Americans are "the model minor-
ity" and arguing that the myth ultimately hurts the
many Asians who are not so successful in school.
He estimated, for example, that the school drop-
out rate for southeast Asian students is over 50
percent. He added that the myth is also used
against blacks, Hispanics, and Native Americans
by suggesting that "if we Asians can make it with-
out welfare, and if we can succeed at school, why
can't you [other minorities do so]?"

Regarding problems at UMASS/Amherst,
Nguyen placed the blame on the administration
and faculty. Leadership at the university has con-
sistently served as a means of social control in-
stead of serving to create conditions for positive
social change. For example, when a group of stu-
dents has occasion to demand its civil rights or
when there is a racial conflict, the university
immediately sets up committees to diffuse the
problem. People are "dragged into long drawn out
discussions so that no solutions ever arise." Or,
even if recommendations are made, the university
finds "a million excuses as to why you can't put
them in place." He further charged that "the uni-
versity has been really successful in separating mi-
nority groups." It has done so by using funding as
a source for "creating conflict among us, funding
for the cultural centers, funding for different pro-
grams, funding for even academic courses."

Nguyen said he agreed with Jemison that, "In
reality, multiculturalism as defined by UMASS
has no real substance, at least none that benefits

7 New England Board of Education, Equity and Pluralism: Full Participation of Blacks and Hispanics in New England Higher Educa-
tion, January 1989, p. 10.

8 Ibid.

11

people of color." He acknowledged that cultural
centers and different cultural programs exist but
asserted that, nevertheless, "nothing at the univer-
sity has changed." He noted that the percentages
of students of color and faculty of color remain
"extremely low," and that the curriculum "has not
changed very much."

With few exceptions, the social diversity
courses "only reinforce positive stereotypes of mi-
norities," continued Nguyen, and "the core curric-
ulum— what we call 'white studies' — remains in-
tact and unchallenged." He further charged that
to deal with racial conflict, multiculturalism tends
to:

look at people of color, to study us, to learn about us, to
try to understand us, to tolerate us. However, multi-
culturalism never looks at white American culture. It never
goes into any self-reflection, never examines white racism.
[Minority students] arc really disgusted with the notion of
a predominantly white university trying to understand us
without looking at itself.

As just one example of racism in the classroom
that remains unexamined, Nguyen mentioned that
an economics professor presented and explained
an equation and then told the students, "If you
don't do it that way, you would be reduced to the
mentality of a Bushman." Nguyen commented
that for the three students of color in the class, the
statement was vulgar," and for the 37 white stu-
dents "what that professor did was to reinforce to
the white students that Africans are inferior, that
the Bushmen have no civilization, no culture."

Thus, said Nguyen, with the UMASS adminis-
tration and faculty not in touch with minority is-
sues or unwilling to address them, minority stu-
dents encounter:

forms of racism which are highly disguised and masked
behind a friendly face. And this friendly face of racism has
successfully enlisted many students of color and wasted
our time by encouraging us to put our efforts towards
planning activities meant to help whites and minorities to
understand . . . and get along with each other. This is a
waste of time for us because it is our extracurricular time
and also because these programs that we do outside of the
classroom arc not reinforced in the classroom. . . . For
students of color, times haven't really changed.

On the other hand, Nguyen also expected that:

If you took a survey throughout the campus I am sure
most students of color would tell you racism does not exist

on this campus because you have given them all these nice
programs and cultural centers so we can have some good
food and have a good dance once in awhile. But you are
not reinforcing our cultural needs ... [or providing] what
we expect in the classroom. . . . We need curriculum
changes.

He said that in an introductory philosophy
class, "you get Hegel, Plato, Kant, and you are
told: that is 'the' philosophy, not 'a' philosophy."
Minorities who take such a course are indoctri-
nated into "thinking that philosophy belongs to
white male Europeans." When asked whether
Confucius is discussed, Nguyen replied "No."
Non-European thinkers "are not referred to, not
acknowledged."

Modifying the university's perspective on the
core curriculum may be the most important
change needed, Ngyuen indicated. For it is one
thing to offer African American studies, Asian
studies, and the like — that is, ethnic studies which
are on the periphery of the core curriculum. "But
when you go into English or American history, it
is still the same. . . . You are still getting white
male European history."

Responding to a question as to whether
UMASS/Amherst understands the needs of stu-
dents of color, Nguyen offered two possible expla-
nations. First, the university may well understand
the issues troubling students of color and, there-
fore, its reactions have been conceived to control
those students as he described earlier. Or, sec-
ond— and Nguyen preferred this explanation:

the university does not really understand us, and it does not
understand itself. If you want to be multicultural, don't
look at me, look at yourself first. If you want better rela-
tions on campus, look at white racism and why relations
are so poor.

In this way, Nguyen suggested that minority
students are not the problem and, therefore, are
not solely responsible for the solution. Primary re-
sponsibility for the solution lies with the "pre-
dominant mainstream American culture which
happens to be white." He closed by asking the Ad-
visory Committee to help enforce civil rights laws
and to "hold the university responsible for what
we are saying."

Hillel House

Alisha Meshenberg, of Hillel House and the
UMASS Jewish community, stated that she ar-

12

rived on campus in the fall of 1988 and became
active in the Jewish community in "the heat of
conflict between the African American commu-
nity and the Jewish community" when Minister
Louis Farrakhan came to speak in January 1989.
Despite the conflict and tension that arose, she
came to see that "a really good thing" happened
when the UMASS office of human relations de-
cided to sponsor a workshop "that tried to bridge
the gap that was growing between our communi-
ties."

Meshenberg said that the workshop instilled an
awareness that more communication could over-
come conflict and help foster better understand-
ing. Out of the crisis and workshop emerged the
Black/Jewish Coalition, which soon grew popular.
A feeling developed that the two groups could
communicate, and students became interested in
attending the meetings of the Black/Jewish Coali-
tion and in participating in an open factfinding
meeting on the issues.

Around Passover of 1989, a multicultural Seder
was also sponsored by the Jewish community, and
non-Jews attended with representation from
members of most of the minority groups on cam-
pus. Meshenberg noted that Civility Week was
not a byproduct of Farrakhan 's visit, but it "defi-
nitely helped to increase the communications be-
tween the black and Jewish communities and
other communities." However, with the passing of
summer and the start of the 1990 fall semester, a
new crisis developed around the Israeli-Palestin-
ian conflict.

Many Jews were ostracized for identifying with Israel. . . .
We lost the status of the underdog and were now [seen] as
the evil aggressors, and many people felt that "why should
we communicate with the Jewish community?" The
Black/Jewish Coalition lost members. . . . Again the multi-
cultural Seder occurred . . . , but less input came from
other members of the community . . . and there was a
much smaller turnout. Alliances still existed mostly
through friendships and not between the communities at
large.

In fact, that year cultural events sponsored by
Hillel and the Jewish community "were protested
and used by some groups as vehicles for misplaced
political opinions," said Meshenberg, adding that
on Israel Independence Day both 2 years ago and
last year, protestors turned that cultural event
into something more political. Another example
of such politicization occurred when a Jewish stu-

dent set up in the New Africa House a photogra-
phy exhibit called visions of Israel; after the open-
ing, some unknown parties put up pictures of ag-
gression against Palestinians and forced the
closure of the exhibit for a few days.

The issue before the Advisory Committee was
not just about politics but also about the lack of
decency that people have been showing by not re-
specting other members on campus, observed
Meshenberg. "No matter whether we share the
same politics or not, we must keep the lines of
communications open, but it seems that we are
losing sight of this." A related problem is that
those core groups of students who each year make
it a priority to educate themselves about their own
groups and those of others represent only a small
fraction of the campus. Such student activists
"spread themselves so thin and they go to commit-
tee after committee to try to solve some prob-
lems." Moreover, the knowledge they gain cannot
easily be widely shared, and once these few stu-
dents graduate, it is left to the interested groups
who follow "to start over from square one."

Meshenberg noted that in December of 1990 a
menorah commemorating Chanukah was erected
outside the Hillel House; it was vandalized, forcing
Hillel to take it inside to protect it from continued
vandalism. Also, members of the fraternity that
had occupied the Hillel House before the Jewish
community came into its possession stood outside
shouting for the Jews to vacate the premises, and
disturbing the intercom system until the police ar-
rived.

Meshenberg then mentioned that some faculty
members do not allow Jewish students to miss
class to observe their religious holidays. "This is a
requirement that [the faculty is] required to fulfill,
but they often don't, out of ignorance." However,
she also noted that one Jewish student reported
that recently, just before Yom Kippur, a professor
in class pointed out that on Yom Kippur a special
event was expected to occur the same day, and the
professor announced "To the Jews in the class,
you can decide what is more important to you — to
attend my class [on Yom Kippur] or not."

In closing, Meshenberg said that she continued
to believe in the value of intergroup communica-
tions, but she agreed with Greenberg about the
need for also developing joint projects. "It seems
that discussions are good, but they really do not
help our relationships to progress. If we worked
on joint projects, maybe we could learn to work

1-3

together as a community instead of being di-
vided."

Jeffrey L. Pegram

[Advisory Committee Acting Chairperson Al-
meida noted that students representing both the
Latin American Cultural Center and the Dr. Jose-
phine White Eagle American Indian Cultural
Center had been scheduled to appear but appar-
ently were unable to attend. Jeffrey L. Pegram, a
UMASS student and the brother of the Native
American student who had been scheduled to rep-
resent the latter center, participated in a special
July 1992 program featured in an August 1992
New York Times article on the obstacles encoun-
tered by blacks, Hispanics, and Native Americans
seeking to enroll in college or graduate schools.]

During a 4-wcek summer program held in An-
dover, Massachusetts in July 1992 for college
graduates seeking to do graduate studies, Jeffrey
L. Pegram, a Native American student, recalled a
high school guidance counselor "who told him he
was only good enough to get into a 2-year college-
— this to a student whose high grades put him on
the dean's list 3 years in a row," according to a
recent New York Times article:

"Out of 2,000 students, I was one of 5 Native Americans,
and we found out that this guidance counselor had told a
lot of people of color that they should go into the Army or
a 2-year school," said Mr. Pegram, who graduated this
year from the University of Massachusetts and wants to
study American Indian history.

The article, which also cited other minority stu-
dents and their summer program teachers, re-
ported that the advice given to Pegram is a mes-
sage "familiar to experts who work with minority
college students." One teacher in the summer pro-
gram added that, "even after they start graduate
school, the message to them is, 'When are you
going to drop out?'"

UMASS Panel of Administrators
Office of Human Relations

Dr. Grant M. Ingle, the director of the office of
human relations, said that he is an organizational
psychologist and that his duties do not include de-
fending the university but changing it. With help
from many people, his office over the years has
had as its goal the creation of "a more civil cam-
pus, one more reflective and responsive to our in-
creasing cultural diversity."

He observed that a key problem in higher edu-
cation is that the issues of "racial, religious, and
other forms of intimidation and conflict histori-
cally have not been seen as anything other than a
disruption in the main business of a university."
Consequently, his office "fights all the time, trying
to get attention to these issues as more than just
disruptions." Campus administrators are, typi-
cally, unwilling to spend money on preventive ac-
tivities but become motivated to take corrective
steps after a publicized incident, according to
Ingle. Incidents are often followed by student de-
mands for change. Administrations delay in re-
sponding, but they eventually do respond, which
Ingle said he:

could document in at least three or four major cases in the
last 5 years. I keep a scorecard in my office. . . For the most
part, 90 percent of the demands have been met, but this has
not resulted in significant change.

He pointed out that the assumption is that the
implementation of student demands is "somehow
going to improve the day-to-day experience of stu-
dents of color and others on campus" from the
creation of cultural centers to refinements in the
language of a harassment policy. But "what we are
learning is in fact that these changes do not change
the quality of life of the students we are concerned
about because ... as has been alluded to before,
our student body turns over at a rate of 30 percent
a year." As Jemison mentioned earlier, Ingle also
noted that many undergraduate students came
"from communities with little diversity, from rural
areas, and from de facto segregated suburbs out-

9 Susan Chira, "Minority Students Tell of Bias in Quest for Higher Education," New York Times, Aug. 4, 1992, p. A-l.

10 Ibid.

14

side of cities, and arrive at the campus full of
naive prejudices and stereotypes."
Ingle further asserted that:

they are literally unprepared in many ways for the kind of
cultural, racial, and ethnic diversity this campus offers and
they have had no preparation in high school. They have
had health education, physical education, and driver's edu-
cation universally, but not multicultural education. As a
consequence, we as an institution are placed in the position
of having to do remedial multicultural education for huge
numbers of students every year, a task which the university
in the best of budgetary times is commonly reluctant to
take on and is easily written off as an accessory program.

At the same time, he emphasized that students
arrive with some naivete about race and religion
and act mostly out of ignorance and not malice.
Surveys of newspaper accounts show "that 9 times
out of 10, the perpetrator is a white male who has
been drinking or is drunk. Furthermore, he is typ-
ically a first-year student, but, most critically, ac-
companied by younger brothers or high school
friends from home. Or [the perpetrators] are the
high school friends acting alone," said Ingle, add-
ing that "we can train the police. We can refine
our systems of grievance for racial harassment,
but, frankly, our ability to get to those [high
school] visitors to campus is limited." They have
lived in neighborhoods or communities "where
students or people of color are not found after
dark, and what we are seeing is turf behavior from
their home communities played out on our cam-
puses."

As recorded in ADL Conference on Campus
Prejudice, almost 2 years before the factfinding
meeting, the then-chancellor of UMASS/Amherst,
Joseph Duffey, also touched upon the profile of
typical perpetrators. Not wishing to downplay
other factors, Duffey told participants at ADL's
1989 conference that:

... a great number of these incidents have to do with
alcohol abuse. I do not mean to suggest that racism is not
an issue, or that it's all due to alcohol abuse. That's not the
case at all. But if you read the set of incidents [outlined in

an ADL publication], you will notice at once how many of
them are related to the abuse of alcohol, a problem that I
think we are still unwilling to acknowledge on most of our
campuses.

On a more positive note, at the factfinding
meeting Ingle reported that creative approaches
have been taken in the UMASS School of Man-
agement which has assumed that, if its graduates
are to be successful, they must achieve a level of
"multicultural fluency in this country and glob-
ally." Consequently, the management school at-
tempts to convince its undergraduate and graduate
students that such fluency is essential.

Ingle suggested three Federal initiatives: first, a
Federal program aimed at incentives — not aimed
at requirements — for developing high school
multicultural curricula that would be as wide-
spread as driver's education courses. Multicultural
curricula and driver's education both share safety
as a common goal. Second, since every time Ingle
has spoken to Federal agencies about new initia-
tives those agencies reply, "We are broke, and
Massachusetts already has those model civil rights
statutes [the Massachusetts Civil Rights Act],"
public education must be provided on how to use
those statutes for successful prosecution in cases of
hate crimes.

Third, as it did in issuing stringent guidelines to
address sexual harassment in the workplace, the
Federal Government should issue equivalent
guidelines on how to combat racial and religious
harassment in the campus workplace. Ingle re-
ported that the sexual harassment policy of the
U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commis-
sion had a significant impact in reducing sexual
harassment on campuses including at UMASS,
and a similar effort should be made regarding ra-
cial and religious harassment.

Office of the Dean of Students

Dr. Sharon Kipetz, the interim dean of stu-
dents, stated that the student panelists "very well
named a lot of the problems and different direc-
tions in which we need to go." She said that the

1 1 ADL Conference on Campus Prejudice, p. 27.

12 Mass. Gen. L. Ann., ch. 12 § 1 II (West 1986). See also Massachusetts Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights,
Stemming Violence and Intimidation Through the Massachusetts Civil Rights Act, December 1988, and Community Perspectives on the
Massachusetts Civil Rights Act, March 1991.

15

faculty is working on integrating some of those
ideas in the academic setting, and that her office is
moving the matter a step farther into the policies
influencing the direction of the university. In the
13 years that she has been involved, much work
has been done to develop stronger rights and re-
sponsibilities, but one problem seems to be that
"not enough students arc coming forward and
choosing to use their rights and responsibilities in
the university to press charges."

She reported that in March 1991, Project Pulse,
a research and evaluation arm of her office, con-
ducted a survey of the students of color on cam-
pus. A positive finding was that "students did feel
confident in the university's ability to respond ef-
fectively to specific incidents of racial and ethnic
harassment and to move forward with those
cases." However, a negative finding was that
"students stated that this has been a problem for
them and is an ongoing problem."

Kipetz mentioned that Project Pulse is also
conducting a survey to see what methods and
what direction the university should take to work
on harassment issues. There will be a series of tele-
phone surveys on different topics involving mem-
bers of the community, the faculty, staff, and stu-
dent groups. She was gratified that "the campus
community is beginning to work as a whole and is
moving forward in the same direction. Our
chancellor's debate the other night . . . was a good
first step in opening up dialogue in which we can
talk about our issues and talk about ways to re-
solve our problems." In closing, she implored the
Advisory Committee to talk with the legislature
and with the Federal Government to provide the
funding needed to sustain the work of her office
and the university. Among other things, her office
needs to continue Project Pulse in order to evalu-
ate the programs of her office "and to look criti-
cally at where we arc going. . . ."

M. Ricardo Towncs, the associate dean of stu-
dents in charge of academic support services,
thanked the Advisory Committee and staff for
holding the factfinding meeting. He also thanked
the panelists for participating but then felt com-
pelled to "air a brief note of cynicism." His under-

standing was that the U.S. Commission on Civil
Rights is part of the Bush administration, which
he described as having resorted to "racialisms like
Willie Horton ads, and calling the civil rights legis-
lation a quota bill when it is not." Townes also
believed that a representative of the Office of Civil
Rights of the U.S. Department of Education was
present at the factfinding meeting, and Townes al-
luded to recent controversies which that Office has
been embroiled in.

He then referred to the problem of the lack of
financial resources affecting the ability of students
to attend college. The student panelists were cor-
rect in that matter and in their assessment of other
difficulties. But Townes further noted that:

since the early eighties, the University of Massachusetts has
improved its responsiveness to issues of racial intolerance.
Ten years or so ago, we just didn't know how to deal with
them. Today we are a lot better at it. I think we are to be
commended for that.

Nevertheless, asserted Townes, the university
and the Nation "are either unwilling or unable to
face the issue of race or racism." Not wanting to
seem to offend members of any other communi-
ty— whether it be the gay community or the Jewish
community — Townes also felt compelled to say
that:

when an incident occurred involving racial intolerance, be-
fore we addressed that particular issue, we threw every
other issue into the same pie, and we never faced race and
racism, which has been a part of this country for too long,
a separate issue that needs its own attention, that needs its
own strategies. It's a very complex problem, and when we
always group all of our issues together, we never seem to
focus on the issue of race.

Furthermore, Townes voiced his belief that
even students of color may not fully appreciate the
needs of other students of color. He said that
Asian students, for example, are usually thought
of as one group of students, when in fact there are
15 different Asian students organizations on cam-
pus, each with slightly different needs and obvi-
ously different cultures and different languages.

13 Sec Julie A. Lam. Project I*ulsc: Studcnl Affairs Research and Evaluation Office, "Racial and Ethnic Harrassment Survey," University
of Massachusetts at Amherst, undated, p. 4. However, Cape Verdean and black students were the most likely to say that they were not so
confident.

16

Before a program is started for Asian students,
"we ought to be aware that there is a rich cultural
diversity within that group." Many similarly as-
sume that African Americans are a monolithic
group of people. But, said Townes, "there is as
much diversity in the African community as there
is in any other community. African students in
this community are not all the same, and we need
to start to understand those needs before we start
the program."

Eastern Regional Office Director John I.
Binkley corrected Townes' description of the rela-
tionship of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights
to the Bush administration, explaining that the
Commission is an independent agency. Even
though the President does appoint some members
of the Commission, those members and the Com-
mission may differ with the President on many
matters. Binkley noted, for example, that Com-
mission Chairperson Arthur A. Fletcher has taken
issue with President Bush over the President's re-
fusal to support and pass the 1990 civil rights act
in 1990. U

UMASS Public Safety Department

Dr. Arthur Hilson, the executive director for
public safety at UMASS, said that two programs
he oversees are security and the police depart-
ment. Commenting on the earlier charges by stu-
dents that persons of color on campus are stopped
by the police on the basis of their color, Hilson
acknowledged that, "In spite of all of our initia-
tives, racism still flourishes on this campus." To
deal with it, his office has developed "an early
warning system which means that whenever there
is an incident on campus, anytime, day or night,
that report is made through me up the line to the
chancellor." If the incident appears to be racial or
anti-Semitic, or even rape, there are five people
on-call with beepers 24-hours a day, 7 days a
week, who are part of the counter disorder unit
(CDU) and trained to respond and commence in-
vestigations immediately.

In addition, more UMASS police have been
taken out of cruisers and put on bikes and horses
to increase their visibility and acceptability in the
community. "People will come up and pet a horse.
They don't pet cruisers, and this changes the image
of what police are about." Quoted in the New
York Times on the subject, Hilson added that the
use of mounted police also did "wonders for police
morale." "

Hilson pointed out to the Advisory Committee
that the UMASS police are put through "social
issues training," although he bemoaned the fact
that the police profession is the only profession
that hires practitioners without first requiring that
they be trained. He explained that all that is re-
quired is that the applicant has a high school di-
ploma or a general equivalency diploma. After
being hired, the applicant then goes to the police
academy, is trained, armed, and sent out to en-
force the law. This can mean that an 18-year-old
male "suddenly has a gun on his side" and is
trained from a military viewpoint to be aware of
the enemy who is "the person out in the commu-
nity." He added that "The incident in Los Angeles
is not an isolated police incident. The guns, the
training, and the mind set is that they are out there
to protect themselves, and that's understandable."

To improve matters, Hilson proposed that col-
lege training be required for applicants and, once
hired, the police officer should be subject to re-
moval if found "guilty of unprofessional or uncivil
behavior." He acknowledged, however, that bar-
gaining contracts make it almost impossible to dis-
charge an officer from the police department, and
some modification must be made. Hilson said that
he was "most impressed" with the UMASS stu-
dent panelists who appeared earlier and that he
has since asked them to address his advisory board
and the entire police department. "We can develop
programs all day in our office, but it does not
necessarily meet the needs of those we are commit-
ted to serve."

14 However, the Civil Rights Act of 1991, Pub. L. No. 102-166, was signed by President Bush on Nov. 21, 1991. See Andrew Rosenthal,
"Reaffirming Commitment, Bush Signs Rights Bill; President Tries to Quell Furor on Interpreting Scope of New Law," New York Times,
Nov. 22, 1991, p. A- 1.

15 "Three Police Horses Are Put to Work as 'Ice Breakers,'" New York Times, Sept. 3, 1989, p. 52. Hilson is also cited as saying, "I think
the police are not held in the highest esteem. I want to try and override that sense of distrust."

1-7

UMASS Faculty Panel
Afro-American Studies Department

Dr. Esther Terry, the chairperson of the Afro-
American studies department, noted that she had
"been at the university long enough to have been
the teacher of the young man who stood up to say
that nothing has changed in 20 years." Upon
agreeing to take part in the factfinding meeting,
Terry said that her initial impulse was to docu-
ment all of the efforts that she and others have
exerted outside of their teaching specialties and
research responsibilities to help "ensure that all of
our different students are free to pursue their
studies in a supportive, civil, and nonhostile envi-
ronment." She thought of recounting the vast
number of commissions, task forces and work-
shops and teach-ins that she and her colleagues
had been part of over the years.

But Terry decided to bypass all that "to get to
get to the crux of the matter and the reason" that
all the participants had come to the factfinding
meeting. She asserted that:

To date our very best laid plans and strategies have not
worked. We still have on our campus far too many in-
stances of aggressive intolerance that do violence, some-
times to the body and often to the spirit of the people who
come to us for education and enlightenment. We seem not
to have found quite the way to make our diverse popula-
tions respect and truly value each other for their differ-
ences. . . .

We claim membership in a special and important commu-
nity, a university community. Our unique members come
from across the State largely, but also from the Nation,
and indeed, the world, to learn from us and each other . . .
before they leave to take leadership positions in a very,
very diverse world. Now that is what we believe is our
ideal. So why cannot we get on with that ideal and have
done with the barbarous prejudices, bigotries, and cruelties
that blight our academic community?

Terry offered one explanation as to why. The
students, faculty, and staff come from the world,
carrying with them "all of the prejudices and nar-
row-mindedness that exists in the larger society.
And, because of our structure, we get several
thousand such newcomers each year." She also
admitted that "the university and all of our best
efforts alone will not suffice to solve the prob-
lem." Still, although she confessed to not knowing
how to do it, she believed that "we all must hear

each other, work continuously with each other, to
take back the university and indeed our society
from those who would ground us. I think we need
to do it until we do it right."

Legal Studies Department

Dr. Stephen Arons, of the legal studies depart-
ment, explained that he had spent much of his pro-
fessional life dealing with the institutional dimen-
sions of racism and with the first amendment,
leading him to address the university's legal re-
sponsibility in the matter of racial harassment. He
observed that over the previous 3 or 4 years a na-
tional debate has raged around what is alleged to
be a conflict between the principles of freedom of
expression and freedom of inquiry contained in
the first amendment, and the principle of racial
equality and dignity.

Arons suggested that the debate "mischar-
acterizes the actual nature of the problems of ra-
cial and other forms of harassment" particularly
on campus. He indicated that the issue in these
matters is:

to provide equality of access to education, primarily in the
form of the first amendment, so that if we understand the
university at bottom to be dependent upon the preservation
of freedom to inquire and freedom to read, freedom to
teach, all the academic freedoms which come under the
rubric of the first amendment, then we see the problem of
harassment as one in which some people are deprived of
these freedoms and others are not.

To illustrate his point, Arons related a story
about a young black female student who had
taken two courses with him including an advanced
course 3 or 4 years ago. She had proven herself to
be a very good student. However, about two-
thirds of the way through the advanced course,
Arons assigned students to compose a legal memo-
randum on public school segregation. The student
failed to hand in the assignment on time, and 2
weeks after the deadline she went to Arons to dis-
cuss the problem.

After briefly touching upon the substantive
matter, she finally admitted that it seemed to her
hypocritical or dishonest to work on the assign-
ment. It turned out that during a walk outside she
had recently been verbally assaulted by about six
white males:

a couple of whom she recognized to be students at the
university. . . and she was subjected to the most horrifying

18

and degrading kind of comments . . . based both on her
race and also on her gender, and she was so frightened by
this ... it recalled so much of the images out of a 250-year
history in this country that she felt unable to concentrate
on her work.

Arons asked her if she had reported the inci-
dent to the police or other authorities, but it be-
came "clear that she was too fearful and indeed
ashamed of what happened to her to talk about it
with any authority figure and, further, that she
felt that the result of doing so would not at all be
to her advantage, that no solution would be forth-
coming."

The student never finished the paper or the
course, and "her level of emotional distress was so
great that she [transferred] to a predominantly
black university." Arons viewed the story as not
just an example of what can happen at UMASS
and at other colleges but as also illustrating the
resultant emotional distress that can preclude peo-
ple from "participating in the very first amend-
ment process of inquiry, of learning and teaching,
of holding and exploring beliefs, which is guaran-
teed by the first amendment." For this reason,
Arons characterized the challenge as one of secur-
ing the first amendment freedoms rather than as
one in which "there is a tension between these
freedoms and important issues of equality and
dignity."

Arons then framed four principles that can be
learned from reflection on the story and a study of
the first and 14th amendments. First, the first
amendment protects and even "defines the very
nature of the university" since the freedoms of in-
quiry, belief, opinion and expression, and the free-
dom to teach and to learn fall within the purview
of the first amendment. Thus, the first amendment
is "absolutely essential to the understanding of
why we are here."

Second, one of the worst injuries that can result
from racial and "other forms of insidious verbal
and expressive harassment are the injuries which
are so severe that they deprive a person of their
right to participate in the first amendment pro-
cesses." Consequently, third, what needs to be
done is to find a way to secure not just for the

bigot but for everyone the right to participate in
this process. Fourth, there are legally useful and
constitutionally permissible theories making it
possible to sanction and punish expressions of ra-
cial and other harassment. Arons mentioned that
UMASS faculty, staff, students, and others have
been working on these theories, and some weeks
after the factfinding meeting, a group will "present
to the campus for debate and discussion, and, one
hopes, for action some very specific proposals as
to how this kind of activity can be sanctioned in
the future."

Just this summer, however, the U.S. Supreme
Court issued a ruling in R.A. V. v. City of St. Paul
casting doubt on the constitutionality of speech
codes at public colleges which had been formu-
lated "to shield minorities and others from offen-
sive remarks," according to a June 1992 Washing-
ton Post news story. The ruling does not
necessarily affect private institutions of higher ed-
ucation, but it is estimated that 100 to 200 or more
public institutions will have to review their existing
codes against hate speech. Moreover, a law profes-
sor at the private Stanford University said that,
"our view is that we should be held to the same
standards as public institutions," as reported in a
June 1992 New York Times article.

Spanish and Portuguese Department

Dr. Javier Cevallos, of the Spanish and Portu-
guese department, said that, though there are only
a few Hispanics at UMASS, Hispanics do teach in
all departments. Of the 27 Hispanic faculty, 4 were
born in Spain, 2 are Portuguese born in Portugal,
and 20 were Latino. He agreed with the student
panelists on the lack of faculty of color, and ad-
mitted that "I find my role is the role of the token
Hispanic in meetings because there is nobody
else." He explained that there are only 20 Latinos
but 200 committees.

Noting that Hispanics come in all skin colors,
Cevallos said that "We are not defined by an eth-
nic or racial background [but] by language. We
have one language in common, and language is a
very important tool that has been used against
some of the Hispanics." As a student of color had
said earlier of his use of a non-English language,

16 Mary Jordan, "Ruling Seen Stifling Controversial Campus Speech Codes," Washington Post, June 23, 1992, p. A-6.

17 William Celis, 3rd. "Universities Reconsidering Bans on Hate Speech," New York Times, June 24, 1992, p. A-13.

19

Cevallos asserted that there have been "countless
incidents on campus" of Hispanic students being
told to speak English or that Hispanics are noisy,
and such remarks lead to "linguistic discrimina-
tion and to linguistic intimidation."

He added that many are afraid of speaking
Spanish, and that he once was afraid. But "now I
speak in Spanish intentionally in meetings where I
know that people don't speak Spanish." On the
other hand, he pointed out that he is also begin-
ning to observe "inner group discrimination,"
with Hispanics discriminating against other His-
panics on the basis of success:

meaning to be white or to have what the middle-class
American whites have — white picket fences, a family, and
two cars in the garage. If I'm successful, that means it's
because I'm better than ourselves. If I can do it as a Hispa-
nic, then other Hispanics are not as good as I am.

Cevallos reminded the Advisory Committee
that access to college is being denied to larger
numbers of students of all colors and ethnic back-
grounds because they lack sufficient education.
Those that can enroll have to take remedial
courses in reading and math. "We are not only
asking a university to do remedial work, we are
asked to do remedial work to survive." He
thought that "it is a very tough job to ask cam-
puses and universities around the country to do
all that in facing all the budget cuts and all the
problems we are having" and closed by saying, "I
think it is time for the government to put its
money where its mouth is."

English Department

Dr. John Hunt, of the English Department,
observed that U MASS/ Amherst has greatly
changed. When he arrived 24 years ago, there
were no Afro-American studies, no women's stud-
ies, no Social Issues Training Project for dormi-
tory staff. However, he agreed with Terry that the
problems arc still not solved. But he also believed
that the problems may ultimately not be amenable
to solutions. He arrived at this conclusion be-
cause:

people come to this university from a country whose popu-
lation most basically is characterized as abrasion between
groups, large groups against small groups, groups against
each other in a country which is very spacious. You can
relieve the pressure and the potential for conflict because
there is space to move around. . . . On a university campus
you are jammed together, so you are going to get abrasion,
and it is going to constantly arise.

What is needed, explained Hunt, are counter-
balancing forces, and that is what a university
should provide. "It is supposed to be a counter-
balancing force to the abrasion and hurt." The
faculty is also needed to make a difference, but
since UM ASS aspires to be a "world class research
university," faculty members experience an uneasi-
ness about time "not spent madly preparing your
classes or doing research." Thus, the demand on
them precludes their devoting attention to the lives
students lead outside of the classroom, and as long
as this situation prevails, "nothing will happen.
We will be having these meetings forever."

Hunt's "own feeling is that we . . . need to work
on a mode of institutional redefinition so that the
faculty can be relieved of their uneasiness." He in-
dicated that one instrument that has shown some
success is the chancellor's Commission on Civility
and Human Relations established in 1980 in re-
sponse to several anti-Semitic incidents. Com-
posed of "faculty, staff, and an insufficient num-
ber of students, it acts as a sort of free radical,"
having access to the chancellor, though "it does
not fit in anywhere. It's not in the structure, any
power structure. It does not report to anything
and simply makes its own agenda for what needs
attention on campus," such as the Persian Gulf
War in 1990, and on multiculturalism and "politi-
cal correctness," the latter topic debated at the
chancellor's forum earlier during the week of the

18

Advisory Committee's factfinding meeting.

Hunt emphasized that it is not the specific activ-
ities that the chancellor's commission sponsors but
the larger statement it makes, "that this place
stands for certain things, and those things in fact
do not allow for the kind of abrasion and conflict
and hurt which prohibits the tranquil and produc-
tive enjoyment of the experience of a university."
He closed by pointing out that "we must not hope

18 See Michael Levy, "Discussion Diverse at Free Inquiry Debate," Massachusetts Daily Collegian, Sept. 26, 1991. The title of the debate
was "Multiculturalism: Foe or Ally of Free Inquiry." It involved three UMASS/ Amherst professors and one from Hampshire College.

20

for conclusions. There is no conclusion. There is
the demand, the necessity to be the countervailing
force."

Plant and Soil Sciences Department

Haim Gunner explained that he was appearing
in several capacities, since he was "the longest
serving and probably the oldest" member of the
chancellor's Commission on Civility and Human
Relations, president of the board of directors of
Hillel House, and cochair of the Jewish Faculty,
Professional, and Staff Group. He said that he,
too, had been moved and impressed by the stu-
dent panelists, but at the same time pointed to the
"enormous change which has happened on this
campus since I arrived in 1963, evidence of which
is the fact that we are here speaking in a candor
which was simply unheard of even a decade ago."

As a member of the Jewish community, Gun-
ner noted that the Jewish experience on campus
can be viewed as a bridge to the complexity of the
minority experience. The Jewish experience is
unique, he said, since Jews welcome diversity and
view themselves as part of the ethnic mosaic, but
Jews have also been lumped together with "the
white oppressive racist majority." Moreover, not
only have Jews been assaulted by skinheads but
Jews have also frequently had to suffer "what has
to be bluntly described as black and brown rac-
ism." He explained that the latter phenomenon
could typically be labeled "Israel bashing" associ-
ated with the controversy over the status of the
Palestinians.

Gunner suggested that the effect is to subject
Jewish students to "an ambiance of fear, of epi-
thets, and of potential violence" similar to what
blacks, Asian Americans, Cape Verdeans, Native
Americans, and other minority students face. The
challenge is to determine what to do about it, he
said, adding that the predicament is difficult for
the university "because it cannot socially engineer.
We [earlier] heard references to controlling social
action." Teaching environmental science, Gunner
said that he is "sometimes looked at strangely be-
cause I bring issues of race and gender to the lec-
ture platform. But we as faculty have to lose this
sense of embarrassment, this sense of estrange-
ment in terms of what we believe. ..."

He closed by describing a graduate course
which brought trainers into the residence halls on
anti-Semitic awareness and gay and lesbian aware-
ness. Eliminated because of budget tightening at
the university, such courses must be restored and
amplified, said Gunner, and among the faculty, a
sense of responsibility in the classroom must be
generated to acknowledge and welcome diversity
and to buttress it in the university by making "sure
that good will is reinforced by structural sup-
ports." While acknowledging that Meshenberg
had well described the hardships that Jewish stu-
dents encountered when attempting to build brid-
ges, Gunner stressed that "in the end it is going to
have to be the creation of a bridge by the students
themselves that will help to heal and to rectify
these hurts. Certainly you now must undertake a
leadership role."

21

3. Smith College

In my 19 years of living, I have never experienced as much racism as I have at
Smith College.

Kamina A. Henderson, Student
Smith College

If we can build a consensus that recognizes that even unintended discrimination is
terribly hurtful and harmful and that each of us is personally responsible for our
unintended racism, we may be able to create educational settings that are as wel-
coming and comfortable for people of color as they have been for centuries for
others.

Fletcher A. Blanchard, Professor
Smith College

Smith College Student Panel

Indigenous Americans of
Smith College

Representing the Indigenous Americans of Smith
College, Karen Cooke explained that the orga-
nization included only five members, four of
them Alaskan Natives, since Smith College had little
recent success in recruiting Native Americans from
the lower 48 States. An Innuit Eskimo, Cooke said
that she had not experienced any overt racism; "no
one comes up to me calling me names or doing In-
dian calls." However, subtle racism has occurred and
that which annoyed her most stemmed from a lack
of information. For example, her Smith College
classmates would ask: "Do you live in an igloo? Do
you speak English in Alaska?" Cooke wondered
what such ignorance revealed about the education
received by American children.

She stated that, "I am really in touch with my
culture. People resent this because you don't
blend in. 'Why don't you become American, take
part in the American culture?'" they ask. Cooke
noted that she is an indigenous person of Amer-
ica, "Yet I come here, and you come to me and
tell me to change the way I live, the language I
speak, the food I eat." She also reported that
when minority students associate with other mi-
nority students, the majority students "think we
are trying to isolate ourselves from the majority,
which is when we start feeling defensive and don't
want to integrate with other students." Cooke fur-

ther observed that most white students have many
white friends. "They may have one black friend, or
one Chinese friend, or one Latino friend. But their
closest friends are people of their same ethnic
background."

Smith College implements the Bridge Program,
one element of which involves first year students
and new students of color meeting to talk about
racism and miseducation. Cooke said that she did
not mind educating people about Eskimos; it was
just that she was "tired of having to be the only
person carrying this weight." People approached
her and would "only talk to you about things of
your ethnic background. All they see is your color.
So in this sense, they are telling me, 'All I want to
know about you is what you can tell me about
your culture. . . . Your personal interests don't
matter to me.'"

Cooke reported that instructors at Smith Col-
lege speak about Native Americans and indige-
nous people as savages. When the administration
claims that it is looking for people of color to serve
on the faculty, the administration also claims that
it cannot find any. Her interpretation of what the
administration means is that, "You are not edu-
cated enough to come here and teach." With the
Federal Government cutting back on support for
education, among the first things cut are those re-
lating to ethnicity including minority recruitment.
That in turn would lead to an increase in racism.

She admitted that racism exists in Alaska as it
does in Massachusetts. Alaska has at least half a
million inhabitants, 13 percent of whom are Alas-

22

kan Natives. Referring to what Cevallos had said
of Hispanics at UMASS, Cooke stated that some
Alaskan Natives believe that to be prosperous one
needs to be white and have the things related to
white culture: money, cars, and the like. Her own
family is middle class, and although her family
has things which pertain to the white culture, her
mother remained involved with the Innuit culture
and language, and thus, there did not have to be
such conflicts.

Hillel of Smith College

Liza Deman stated that she represented Hillel
of Smith College and the Jewish community on
campus. She expressed gratitude for being invited
to participate because:

we are so rarely included in programs about discrimination
or intolerance on our own campus. For example, 2 years
ago Smith College held its Otelia Cromwell Day, a day-
long education workshop on the experiences of minor-
ities. . Jewish students were not included in the planning
process, and there were no workshops on anti-Semitism or
the Jewish experience. It seemed that every other form of
ethnic discrimination was represented. In that first year
when a group of Jewish students and professors com-
plained, we were informed by the administration that anti-
Semitism was not considered a form of racism.

The same year that saw the start of Otelia
Cromwell Day, "a book was found defaced and
covered with swastikas and racial slurs," contin-
ued Deman; "obviously our enemies think we are
a race." Though workshops on anti-Semitism
have since become part of the program, Deman
charged that "Hillel and the Jewish community
are consistently not invited to be a part of the
planning committee for that day."

She observed that Smith College "is deeply at-
tached to its past." Up to 1969, 15 percent of the
school population was Jewish, but has since fallen
to less than 5 percent. "There has been a rabbi on
campus for some 40-odd years, but he was not
given an office until 1967." She also reported that
a benediction in which the name of Jesus was
often referred to continued to be used. "Religious
minorities are made to feel alien" in other ways.
As an example, Deman stated that she "was

coaxed into attending the annual Smith Vespers
Concert in November," an event funded by the
Smith College administration. Though told it was
to be nondenominational and "not too Christ-
masy," she complained that she found herself sit-
ting through 2 hours of Christmas music and cele-
bration.

With the majority of the student body being
white Anglo-Saxon Protestants, Deman stated
that:

most of the students are not willing to go out of their way
to attend to the rest of us. We feel that many of the prob-
lems we face are the result of ignorance, but we also need
the support of the administration. It must be recognized
that we are a minority group. We are left out of the white
population. We are not Protestant.

She stressed that a fundamental change should
take place on campus to recognize that Jewish stu-
dents have needs similar to those of other minority
students.

Asian Students Association of
Smith College

An officer of the organization, Caroline Wing
represented the Asian Students Association of
Smith College. She credited Smith College for its
good intentions in establishing the Bridge Pro-
gram, earlier referred to by Cooke, and the Smith
College Design for Diversity, which Wing de-
scribed as a long-range plan seeking to increase the
percentage of women of color to 20 percent and to
increase the percentage of faculty of color by the
year 2000. Wing said that the Design's goal for
students has already been achieved, but efforts re-
garding the faculty have "not been all that success-
ful. The percentage of faculty of color [at Smith
College] is surprisingly low, and I have heard ru-
mors that it may be even going lower."

Despite implementation of the Bridge Program
and the Design plan, "it has been my feeling that
the administration has not done much for women
of color on campus," continued Wing. She re-
ferred to the establishment of cultural centers and
the struggle for space for them; apparently the ad-
ministration had not foreseen the growth in num-
bers of cultural organizations and their sizes. She

1 See also Maria Ostumi, "Otelia Cromwell Day to Celebrate Diversity," Smith College Sophiaa, Sept. 26, 1991, p. 1. A native American
was to be the keynote speaker.

23

explained that for 10 years Asian students have
had to borrow space from the Black Student Alli-
ance, although the administration had earlier
promised the Asian students their own space. Last
year, the black students associated with the Alli-
ance told the Asian students that it was time that
the administration provide the promised space.
After the Asian students went to the administra-
tion, it "basically ignored the issue. We did not get
any response until we staged a weeklong sit-in."

Similar to what a UMASS panelist had said
about cultural centers at the Amherst campus,
Wing charged that, "there was an attempt also for
the [Smith College] administration to pit cultural
organizations against one another." After the
Asian students made their demands for space, the
administration responded that, "'We'll just have
to take some away from the Black Students Alli-
ance then.'" The black students then "felt they
could not support us. . . ."

Wing also offered an example of the
administration's apathy. Three years ago, there
were incidents involving racist notes. After the
first such incident:

the administration said that they would do everything they
could to find the culprit. ... To this day I do not know
whether or not the culprits have been apprehended or even
if they have been identified. The following year another
racist note was written, and my feeling was that it was
written because the administration refused to take a stand
against a racial incident of this sort.

She closed by saying that she was in favor of
the Bridge and Design programs and that she
would like to believe that Smith College has good
intentions.

Nosotras

Elizabeth Solernou, the cochairperson of
Nosotras, a Latina students organization whose
name means "Us" in Spanish, said that her Smith
College experience has been "positive in the way I
have been getting an excellent education but nega-
tive in the way of my race." As a Latina, she sug-
gested that the administration and faculty do not
recognize Latinos as a minority. "We are often put
in the middle or put aside. They always say it's a
black and white issue. But we are not all black.
We are not white. We are Latino." She explained
that when Latina students make demands, "what
usually happens is that they will nod, and nothing
happens."

In terms of the Design for Diversity plan and its
goal of 20 percent minority, Solernou observed
that "most of the Latino population in the United
States is concentrated in the inner cities. [Smith]
College does not go and recruit in the inner cities,
so the Design does not do anything for Latinos."
She estimated that the class of 1990 was 20 percent
Latino, but in 1991, it fell to 16 percent, and she
guessed that in 1992, it may drop down to 10 per-
cent. She said that the administration has not ad-
dressed this.

Solernou charged that the administration does
not "consider the fact that some professors are
openly racist in their classrooms." She said that a
friend was in class when her professor used the
terms Chicano and Latino in a derogatory way.
Her friend told the professor that she considered
the comments as racist, but "the professor just
walked out. The professor did not address the stu-
dent in any way, and I personally don't think that
is the best way to address such an issue."

She also reported that the introductory Ameri-
can history course does not address the Chicano
movement or what happened in the 1848 war with
Mexico, an issue of concern to the Latino popula-
tion. She noted, too, that for 2 years an entire day
was set aside as Otelia Cromwell Day, but "this
year it is 7 hours. How can we address the prob-
lems of racism in 7 hours?" She characterized the
Bridge Program as "very positive." But the admin-
istration does not sustain its support for students
of color as evidenced by the incidents of the racist
notes: "you go and ask the administrators, 'What
has happened?' [And they respond] 'it's still under
investigation.'"

Responding to a question from Dr. Ivor J.
Echols, the Connecticut Advisory Committee
Chairperson, who observed that the problems
seem to repeat themselves each generation and
who inquired if minority alumnae might be help-
ful, Solernou said that it has been difficult learning
which Latinas graduated from Smith College even
just 10 years ago. She believed that, "the adminis-
tration has been uncooperative in not giving us a
list of alumnae." However, there has been a Latina
professor who had attended Smith College in
1975, and despite the difficulties, the Latina stu-
dents have been trying to build a network of alum-
nae.

That alumnae may be helpful can be seen in a
June 1991, Washington Post article by a black
Harvard University alumnus and researched by

24

another black graduate of the same school. Enti-
tled "How to Survive Campus Bigotry: Advice on
Coping With Racism — From Grads Who've Been
Through It," it offers and explains nine recom-
mendations by several other black graduates for
consideration by black students across the coun-

2

try. More recently, an August 31, 1992 New York
Times article reported on the increase in the num-
ber of minority alumni organizations established
at universities. A black alumnus involved in work-
shops and seminars for current students at his
alma mater pointed out that, "We're not into nos-
talgia; we're about business, about bettering the
situation for the next generation."

In closing, Solernou emphasized that, "we need
to take action fast if we are going to have the
multiculturalism we need to address the issues of
race, not only by bringing minority people into
the university but by talking to people, communi-
cating and taking action."

Student Worker in Admissions

Lucille Smith, a senior, and agreed with Terry,
the UMASS faculty panelist, that change can
come about only with the involvement of every-
one. She noted that she has been a participant and
leader in the Bridge Program every year and that:

I will write letters to students telling them to come to the
college. I will be there if they want to call. I have worked
with Smith College admissions and was the first intern for
minority recruitment of women of color. I designed the
program. ... I have been into the inner cities. I have
recruited . . . and have encouraged other people to recruit
from the inner cities.

Stressing that admissions workers may strive
with dedication, she acknowledged that their
styles may differ, and that many will not or can-
not afford to go into the inner cities. "You've got
to have the funds. There is no way around it. . . .
We need the funds. I do not see the funds."

As for the faculty, she said that in her soph-
omore year she asked an African American pro-
fessor whom she admired whether she would be
leaving. When the professor asked her what she

meant, she replied that, "faculty here at Smith
College always leave. Everytime I turn around
they are gone. I'll get attached to one, and they are
gone," and this has a crucial impact because fac-
ulty role models of color are important for stu-
dents of color.

Lucille Smith admitted that when she first at-
tended classes, the courses raised her enthusiasm,
although some became less than she had expected.
However, she added, "that's all right. They are in
a changing process." In her freshman year, there
were just a few courses on peoples of African de-
scent, and they were basically concentrated in the
African American department. At the time of the
factfinding meeting, a guidebook inventoried
"what classes have cultural representation and
which classes in each department I can go to and
find a specific cultural representation. That's a
good key to me, something to let me know Smith
College is working on it."

She also believed it important for all professors
to examine their classes to see whether students of
color are enrolled, and, if not, what changes
should be made to correct any omission. "You
have to tie everybody into your subject. There are
a lot of professors at Smith College who do it
wonderfully." However, the responsibility for
change is everyone's responsibility, suggested Lu-
cille Smith, asking "Can you look at yourself
today and know what you have done to help make
these changes happen?"

Black Students Alliance

Like Solernou, Kamina A. Henderson, the im-
mediate past chairperson of the Black Students Al-
liance, stated that she had both positive and nega-
tive experiences at Smith College, but added that,
"in my 19 years of living, I have never experienced
as much racism as I have at Smith College." A
junior, Henderson explained that it was not neces-
sary to go back 3 years to find racial incidents. She
said that in December 1990, a student found a de-
capitated black doll on her premises, an un-
publicized incident never mentioned. She won-
dered why there is no discussion of such problems.

2 Paul RutTins, "How to Survive Campus Bigotry: Advice on Coping With Racism — From Grads Who've Been Through It," Washing-
ton Post, June 16, 1991, p. B-2. See app. B.

3 Karen DeWitt, "Minority Alumni Find a New Voice," New York Times, Aug. 31, 1992, p. A-8.

25

Referring to the space issue first mentioned by
Wing, Henderson charged that "there was a delib-
erate attempt by the administration to cause dis-
sension among cultural groups." She stated that
the administration told the chairperson of the
Asian Students Association that she needed to
talk to the Black Students Alliance about giving
up space. Henderson said, "that is not our respon-
sibility; that is the administration's responsibility
to attend to the needs of the students, and I don't
see that as having happened at Smith College."

Noting that the Black Student Alliance "has a
reputation for being very vocal all the time," she
believed that "all the women on this panel can tell
you honestly that the only way we have of achiev-
ing progress is through confrontation, sit-ins." On
the space issue, she stated that, "it's a shame we
had to sit-in. I missed class time, and I know a lot
of other students missed class time. ... I have
other extracurricular activities, and I don't always
have time to sit-in."

Henderson noted, too, that during the sit-in,
someone on the president's staff came out and
sprayed air-freshener in the halls while students
were sleeping there during the sit-in. "That was
racist," Henderson charged, but "you never hear
about these things. . . . you never hear anybody
really saying anything negative about what's
going on."

She also remembered that when she first pre-
pared to attend Smith College, she was impressed
by a publication mentioning the 20 percent repre-
sentation of minorities and then saw a number of
women of color when she arrived. However:

what they did not tell you in the publication was what they
were going to do when the people got here. ... I thought
this is going to be a great atmosphere for diversity. But I
find I have to defend myself all the time. "Why do you
need space? Why do you all need time for yourselves?"
That should be obvious. When people are being racially
harassed, people receive racist attitudes from the adminis-
tration, it should be obvious.

Furthermore, regarding the 20 percent goal,
she remarked that upon distinguishing the sub-
groups it will be seen that, "there are a large num-
ber of Asians . . . and that's great and wonderful.
We also have to look at it and see that the number

of black students has dropped and the number of
Latino students." In order to create a truly diverse
atmosphere at Smith College, the number of all
minority students has to be increased.

As to solutions, Henderson agreed with Nguyen
of the UMASS student panel, that "we spend a lot
of time in meetings with administrators talking
about what we are going to do" and possible solu-
tions. But she also noted that after the Smith Col-
lege president went on sabbatical, "in less than 2
months, there was a solution [to the space issue]
that we all agreed on" involving the acting presi-
dent.

Smith College
Administrator/Faculty Panel

[Though Smith College president Mary Maples
Dunn had been the first invitee to agree to partici-
pate on the factfinding meeting's originally sched-
uled date, once that date was rescheduled, it
proved impossible for her to be at the factfinding
meeting site on the new date. Instead, she was in-
terviewed at Smith College, and a videotape of the
interview was shown during the factfinding meet-
ing and recorded as part of the transcript.]

Office of the College President

Dr. Mary Maples Dunn, the president of Smith
College, described a vision of the college as a com-
munity made up of many diverse parts joined to-
gether by a common purpose. Although the vision
or dream has not yet been reached, Dunn said that
she was hopeful that "we are on the way.". She
acknowledged that:

we have had incidents of racism on our campus just as
every other campus in the United States has had, and sev-
eral years ago in the midst of a great deal of unhappiness,
particularly for our African American students, we decided
that it was time to change the way in which we approached
these things.

An August 1989 Springfield Sunday Republican
article offered examples of incidents at Smith Col-
lege. In the 1988-89 school year, "several minority
students received anonymous racist notes slipped
under their doors or pinned to message boards of
the dormitory rooms. Racist graffiti were found
spray-painted on the steps of the campus' cultural

26

center in 1986. ..." Regarding the spray-painting
incident, a May 1987 issue of Black Issues in
Higher Education reported that Dunn "took
quick action by removing the graffiti from the cul-
tural center's steps immediately and convening a
meeting of the entire college to discuss the racism
issue."' Although not referring to Smith College,
the specialist in combating bigotry cited earlier
has also written that:

The most important rule is the simplest to effectuate.
When an incident occurs, the university at its highest level,
must respond immediately and strongly. Presidents must
make themselves as public as possible and say — in the
most powerful words — that bigotry has no place on cam-

6

pus.

In her taped remarks, Dunn said that through-
out the country, when a racial incident occurred
on campus, college students would make a series
of demands on the institution including improving
diversity in admissions, hiring additional minority
faculty, modifying curricula, and providing space
for use by those students. On the other side, col-
lege administrators would "typically give as much
as they needed to give in order to get the tempera-
ture to go down, and then you would move away
from that project all together," according to
Dunn.

As reported by the Richmond Times-Dispatch
in January 1988, this phenomenon was also noted
by Frederick A. Hurst, a former Commissioner of
the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimi-
nation. Hurst had investigated the incidents at
UMASS/Amherst after the 1986 World Series,
and he issued a report on the problems at the
campus. During a January 1988 conference at the
College of William and Mary, he contended that,
"college administrators try to create a perception

of change in the place of real change," and that
many top administrators admit they have a prob-
lem, but then sit back to see if the tension becomes
defused. If it does, many do nothing else, accord-
ing to Hurst.

In her video address, Dunn went on to say that
after the incident she decided that it was time to
take up the issue and give it "the highest institu-
tional priority and the priority of presidential lead-
ership." The attempt involved a systematic self-
examination, resulting in the Smith College Design
for Institutional Diversity. An approach to the
issue of diversity on many fronts, the Design ad-
dressed the need for goals on student admissions,
the hiring of faculty and staff, and curriculum
changes. The Design also tried to go beyond those
fronts by attempting to educate the entire com-
munity on the meaning of diversity and diversity's
importance to the college community. Dunn be-
lieved that by being proactive the college has been
able to achieve certain kinds of success. She re-
ported that good progress had been made on some
of the goals for admissions and in faculty hiring.

Calabia noted that the terms "goals" and "quo-
tas" tend to provoke controversy when affirmative
action is discussed; he asked Dunn if she made any
distinctions between goals and quotas. Dunn re-
plied that she does; for her, "quotas carry a com-
mand quality to them" requiring one to "fill a
quota without the necessary attention to quality."
Goals, on the other hand, "you establish for your-
self, allowing you to maintain the criteria for qual-
ity that you have. ..." She further explained that
when some people complain even about having
goals, she points out that:

when we go out to raise money, we always have to have a
goal because it is very hard to go out and say to people, "I
would like to have some money." They always want to

4 William Fosher, "Minorities Lose Ground on Campus: First Step Launched at Smith," Springfield Sunday Republican (Springfield
Mass.), Aug. 6, 1989. p. B-l.

5 Dennis Schatzman, "Rise in Racism Produces Response — a News Commentary," Black Issues in Higher Education, May 1, 1987, p. 4.

6 "Battling Bigotry on Campus," p. 60.

7 Wilford Kale, "Bias Foe Says Racism Ingrained at Colleges," Richmond Times-Dispatch, Jan. 17, 1988, p. 1.

8 Smith College, The Smith Design for Institutional Diversity, Smith College, March 1989.

9 See, for example, Lynne Duke, "'Quota': a Word of Many Definitions; Courts Provide Little Guidance as Democrats, White House
Clash," Washington Post, June 5, 1991, p. A-9. Citing definitions offered by several sources, Duke concludes, "For all the political and ra-
cial heat that quotas — real or perceived — have generated, there is no universal definition of the term."

27

know how much money you would like to have, and then
they will work on that goal. I think of a goal also as a spur
making you self-conscious about having to achieve a goal.
If you just say, "Yes, we want to increase our minority
hiring," but you have no goal in mind, it's very hard to get
that prod in there, to get the feeling that you've got to
accomplish something, to get the will behind it.

Where there have been surprisingly good re-
sults in the development of curriculum, Dunn ob-
served that students have generally asked for a
required course on diversity. However, since there
are "very few campuswide requirements," the cre-
ation of a required course would not be popular.
"So instead we created a pool of money which
faculty would apply to in order to develop new
courses which they thought would increase under-
standing and change the way we look at some
things," she said.

For example, the music department used a
grant for the faculty to learn more about ethno-
musicology in order to be able to transmit that in
their introductory freshman courses. The art de-
partment tapped the pool to change the character
of their vast 100 art course which had tradition-
ally been an introduction to western art and was
now coming closer to becoming an introduction
to major art styles from other parts of the world.
Dunn pointed out that the psychology depart-
ment developed an upper level course attended by
the faculty to which minority experts were
brought in who were investigating psychological
issues having to do with differences.

Dunn mentioned that the Equity Institute, a
consultant firm, led seminars on multiculturalism
for people on campus, and in turn, a group of
them "felt able to go on to teach similar seminars
on campus." The college's affirmative action of-
fice offered civil rights seminars that have been
successful as well. And in honor of the college's
first African American graduate, the first Otelia
Cromwell Day was scheduled and devoted to an
educational program having to do with diversity.
The third such day was soon to take place.

Admitting to some failures along the way,
Dunn stated that there remained goals yet to be
met. In terms of student recruitment, she said that
the new freshman class has met the percentage
goal:

in gross numbers. We are not yet there really in the balance
amongst the several racial groups that we would like to
have . . . [but] I would like to hope that we are going to get
that appropriate balance, too. And we are nearly at our
first goal in faculty hiring, too. Hiring staff has been a little
harder because we have a very low rate of turnover.

Calabia noted that on the day of the interview
the New York Times carried a story on the contro-
versy over "political correctness" on college cam-
puses, and that 2 weeks earlier, the Boston

,11
Globe had published a story on campus tensions

throughout Massachusetts. He further noted that
the week before the factfinding meeting, the Wash-
ington Post interviewed the U.S. Secretary of Edu-
cation who appeared to question whether diversity
is a sign of educational quality or is a threat to
academic freedoms and specialized schools, be-
sides leading to racial quotas. Calabia asked
Dunn for her opinion on whether diversity is an
indicator of educational quality.
Dunn replied that:

To some extent, yes, it is. I think you have to look at that in
several different ways. Diversity is a sign of the quality of
national education levels to begin with. We are now a
country made up of different racial groups and we are
going to become a country which is even more made up of
different racial groups, and groups which are very self-con-
scious about their own past and which have not partici-
pated in higher education at the same rate the majority of
Americans have. The quality of the Nation, therefore, in
educational terms is going to depend on the extent to which
we manage to increase access. . . .

I think that is an exceedingly important national goal. If we
do not meet that national goal in 20 years time, we are
going to regret it a whole lot. ... So that's one way of
defining educational equality — the extent to which the peo-
ple of the Nation participate in the educational process.

10 Anthony DePalma. "In Campus Debate on New Orthodoxy, a Counteroffensive," New York Times, Sept. 25, 1991, p. A-l.

11 "... Offenses Continue."

12 Kenneth J. Cooper, "Campus Diversity: Is Education Department Interfering on Standards?". Washington Post, Sept. 17, 1991. p. 17.
See also Karen DeWitt. "Official Assails College Diversity Rule," New York Times, Nov. 22, 1991.

28

Another thing which has very much to do with education
is also related to the multicultural quality of our United
States population. . . . We have to engender some under-
standing of those different pasts. . . [and] maintain a pow-
erful understanding of the western tradition, which has
been the basic substratum of American development. And
it is people who concentrate on maintaining the western
tradition to the exclusion of all else with whom I would
have an argument. So I think, yes, diversity has a lot to do
with educational quality.

Diversity is improving at Smith College, said
Dunn, though more needs to be done to increase
the percentages of some individual minority
groups. She admitted, too, that, "We still see rac-
ist incidents on campus. . . [and] many of our mi-
nority students still feel insulted from time to
time. . . . Racism is such a persistent and deep
problem in the United States that I don't think
any American campus can rid itself completely of
this terrible thing." She considered the stiffest ob-
stacles still to be overcome as those:

encounters in residential life where students of many kinds
live together in very close quarters and where the socializa-
tion of a given student in her family, in the town she comes
from, has not given her a natural way of dealing with peo-
ple who arc different. . . . Some of our toughest problems
emerge in those close situations in the houses.

Almost all of the students — be they Asian
Americans, African Americans, Caucasian Ameri-
cans, and others — arrive on campus having only
lived with their own kind. When they previously
had been confronted by differences, it usually
happened in "the most normal structured kind of
setting, perhaps in a classroom." But on campus
they actually have to live with differences, and "it
is that living together that I think presents the
hardest challenges for young people." Dunn
added that:

sometimes I would like to think that when there is a racist
incident in a house, for example, a frightful anonymous
letter or something like that, the very openness and explo-
sive quality of the discussion that follows is educational,
and education is, after all, what we are about.

Psychology Department

Dr. Fletcher Blanchard, of Smith College's Psy-
chology Department, said he was invited to partic-
ipate in the factfinding meeting to describe some
of the research he had been doing. He empha-
sized that "what you say, what I say, what we say
about racial discrimination and interracial accep-
tance matters. Your voiced opinions affect what
others think and say." A series of experiments con-
ducted by his colleagues and students has demon-
strated that "racial prejudice and reactions to rac-
ism are much more malleable than many of the
researchers and policymakers and political leaders
have believed." Hearing others condemn or con-
done racism dramatically affects a person's own
reactions to racism.

Blanchard pointed out that after hearing some-
one condemn racism, the college students who
were participants in his research "much more
strongly condemned incidents of harassment than
if they had heard no one." In contrast, after hear-
ing someone condone discrimination and harass-
ment, the research subjects would also express
"significantly more condoning opinions." The
large differences appear among research partici-
pants who speak their views publicly and openly
and also when their opinions are measured with
more anonymity. "The observation that even more
privately held views are affected by what others
say is important because it suggests that the mal-
leability we have observed is not simply a reflec-
tion of concerns for what others think." In a New
York Times article describing Blanchard 's re-
search, Blanchard is also quoted as concluding
that, "the research makes it clear that ... a school
should have an aggressive policy against racist
acts." The article further reports that partly upon
Blanchard's encouragement, "Smith College has

13 See Daniel Goleman, "New Way to Battle Bias: Fight Acts, Not Feelings; Condemning Racism Will Discourage Bias Incidents, Study
Finds," New York Times, July 16, 1991, (hereafter cited as "New Way to Battle Bias "), pp. C-l-C-8. See also "Testimony Offered Be-
fore the Massachusetts Advisory Committee to the United States Commission on Civil Rights," app. C.

14 See also Blanchard, F.A., Lilly, T., and Vaughn, L.A., "Reducing the Expression of Racial Prejudice," Psychological Science, Ameri-
can Psychological Society, March 1991, pp. 101-05.

29

adopted a plan for countering racism; it includes
having every new faculty member, student and
staff person go through a workshop designed to
make clear that acts of prejudices will not be toler-
ated."'5

Blanchard speculated that "one of the reasons
that the opinions about racism held by many peo-
ple today are so easily influenced derives from the
still very high level of racial segregation that char-
acterizes contemporary American society." He
noted that few white college students enjoyed the
opportunity of growing up in integrated neighbor-
hoods, attending substantially integrated schools,
or observing their parents interact in "a friendly
manner with people of color." Even fewer white
students entering college today have a chance to
learn from black teachers, participate in voluntary
activities in organizations headed by black advis-
ers or coaches, or work for black employers. He
further observed that, although public opinion
poll data over the last several decades portray fa-
vorable trends in the attitudes of whites towards
African Americans, those attitudes and opinions
derive from little direct experience. He added:

Few of the many whites, I would argue, who have reached
honest and genuine commitments to egalitarian values
have had the opportunity to acquire the full range of inter-
personal skills, sensibilities, and knowledge that might
allow them to fulfill that commitment. It is this lack of
interracial experience that may underlie the malleability of
reaction to racism.

Blanchard further observed that today's Amer-
ican campuses constitute the first multiracial so-
cial setting encountered by many young people.
However, as the racial and ethnic composition of
American campuses continued to become even
more heterogenous over the last two decades,
there has been an alarming increase in racial
harassment. Still, the strongly positive trend to-
wards a more favorable racial attitude among
Americans makes it difficult to attribute this high
rate of racist attacks on college campuses to an
increase in racial prejudice among the many.

Instead, Blanchard suggested that "much of the
current incidence should be understood to repre-
sent the open hostility expressed by the strongly

prejudiced few." Efforts to reduce racial harass-
ment and discrimination and to enhance "feelings
of acceptance and belonging among people of
color must acknowledge the many who are naive,
inexperienced and often well-intentioned, on the
one hand, and the few who are genuinely mean-
spirited on the other." He said that campuses have
mainly responded with education and training for
students and staff and with new codes that attempt
to define appropriate conduct. Neither of these
strategies has yet produced the ideal educational
setting where all members of the academic
community can thrive.

Thus, Blanchard's recommendation would in-
volve developing campus civil rights policies by
borrowing from Federal and State civil rights stat-
utes and integrating them into a statement of the
institution's academic mission. The policies would
be used to regulate the behavior of the relatively
few bigots, but "mere punishment for isolated, un-
intentional mistakes and insensitivities offers little
guidance for the honestly well-intentioned, yet in-
experienced." Blanchard believed that the possibil-
ity of punishment for acts of insensitivity may
deter interaction among the well intentioned of
different races. "For fear of doing the wrong
thing, the inexperienced sometimes choose to
avoid situations where their naivete may be ob-
served by others." His recommendation for deal-
ing with them would be to use praise to reward
behavior evidencing favorable interracial behav-
ior, although Blanchard acknowledged that inter-
racial kindness and respect is more difficult to no-
tice than the opposite behavior demonstrated by
bigots.

At the same time, Blanchard did not dismiss
"the many unintentional yet hurtful acts" done by
the inexperienced. The fact of being so numerically
underrepresented even among well-intentioned
whites makes it possible to magnify the discomfort
felt by a minority member due to an insensitive
act. Moreover, while an individual white person
may only infrequently commit an insensitive act, it
is possible for the many well-intentioned whites to
accumulate so many of such acts among them that
the discomfort felt by the minority person can be
magnified. Blanchard hypothesized that if a black
were to be just 1 person in a unit of 10 persons —

15 "New Ways to Battle Bias " p. C-8.

30

all the other 9 being well-intentioned but inexperi-
enced whites — and if each white were to commit
only one act of insensitivity per month, it is still
possible for the black person to experience an in-
sensitive act at the rate of about one every third
day.

Blanchard closed by offering two metaphors
that describe a setting closer to the ideal educa-
tional setting. The first referred to how antismok-
ing norms and regulations largely achieved the
elimination of tobacco smoke from public places.

When a broad consensus was reached that persons have a
right to breathe air untainted by cigarette smoke, when
nonsmokers took the responsibility for criticizing smokers
and insisted that they not smoke, cigarette smoke in public
places disappeared. No one cared about the personal feel-
ings, the internal attitudes or the out-of-context behavior
of smokers. . . . We focused on the outward behavior, not
the intentions or the inside feelings. If we can build a con-
sensus that eschews the behavior of bigotry, we may be
able to create settings that are free of such bigotry.

His second metaphor dealt with the social
movement against drinking and driving and how
that movement transformed the general view of
personal responsibility for behavior influenced by
intoxication. He observed that drunkenness used
to serve to deflect blame and reduce responsibility
for behavior; drunkenness was akin to diminished
capacity.

Persons who performed what otherwise constitutes serious
criminal behavior were held less responsible for the out-
comes of their acts because we thought they did not intend
those outcomes. We now hold persons responsible for the
outcomes of their behavior. If we can build a consensus
that recognizes that even unintended discrimination is ter-
ribly hurtful and harmful and that each of us is personally
responsible for our unintended racism, we may be able to
create educational settings that are as welcoming and com-
fortable for people of color as they have been for centuries
for others.

Smith College Campus
Security Department

Sharon Rust introduced herself as the chief of
the Campus Security Department of Smith College
where she has served for approximately 14 years.
Prior to her arriving at Smith College there were
racial harassment incidents, and she stated that
cases of racism and harassment have continued to
be reported. When Rust gives an orientation
speech to college residents and various groups, she
tells her audience to "report any incident, no mat-
ter how minor, how small it may seem, because
many times ... it is indicative of a larger prob-
lem."

During her years at Smith College, Rust has
noticed an increase in the reporting of incidents,
but she said that she was unsure as to what to
attribute the increase to, "whether our system has
become more in place and . . . students know what
avenues to choose, or, I would like to think that
there is a greater sensitivity to these issues." She
explained that such reports go first to the office of
affirmative action. In fact, many recent cases were
reported directly to that office instead of being re-
ported to her department. Whenever that oc-
curred, the affirmative action office requested as-
sistance on investigative procedures from her
department. Once an investigation begins, her
department's role is to provide services for the
gathering and analysis of evidence and for further
consultation with the district attorney's office to
ascertain possible charges and to assist with the
investigation.

She observed that the factfinding meeting pan-
elists have eloquently argued that the key to solv-
ing the problems of incidents on campus is
through education, and she believed in the need
for such education for her police officers and for
the students, administration, and staff. She noted
that she knew many of the Smith College student
panelists at the factfinding meeting, having:

dealt with them on incidences involving racism, or notes,
anonymous notes. In one way or another, it becomes a very
personal issue, a very explosive issue, and an issue that is
difficult for eveiyone to try to resolve to everyone's satis-
faction. That does not come easily.

31

4. Public Law Enforcement and Legal Panel

Massachusetts State Police

Lieutenant Edward D. Harrington, of the Massa-
chusetts State Police, stated that he was as-
signed to the district attorney's office for
Hampshire and Franklin Counties where he has
worked closely with local law enforcement personnel
serving communities including UMASS and Smith
College. He recommended that college students be
informed of the statutes available to them regarding
the criminal aspects of civil rights violations, since
"it is extremely important that students know that
racial harassment or violence is a crime in and of
itself." He also urged that a series of reporting mech-
anisms be set up so that all appropriate law enforce-
ment personnel receive prompt notification.

He said that if the reporting is done in a timely
manner, the information can be gathered and the
investigation can be carried out properly.

We're not saying that we are going to solve every case or
that every case is going to go into the courts system. But
we will say that we will give serious consideration, serious
time, serious commitment, serious manpower to every situ-
ation that we become aware of throughout the campuses.

The local district attorney has established a
policy that his office is to be notified if any civil
rights case is going to undergo criminal investiga-
tions. The district attorney then comes to his State
police office to request assistance in the investiga-
tion or to ask the State police to monitor the local
police department involved. He viewed the district
attorney as being "very adamant that [incidents]
be investigated properly and, if the information
calls for it, that [incidents] be prosecuted."

District Attorney's Office for
Northwestern District

Winston Burt, an assistant district attorney
serving the northwestern district, explained that
Judd J. Carhart, the district attorney, had been
present earlier but could not remain. Burt stated

that the district attorney's office is responsible for
prosecuting crimes and criminal behavior, and
that the office seems to be prosecuting more
crimes of a civil rights nature than ever. Most fall
under the Massachusetts Civil Rights Act (CRA),
which Burt summarized by saying that, "if anyone
threatens or oppresses or interferes with anyone
else in the free exercise of any rights that they
have — any civil rights — and, if it is done willfully
and with force or the threat of force, that is a
crime. It is a misdemeanor, and it is punishable by
up to a year in jail and up to a $1,000 fine. If
bodily injury results from the incident, it becomes
a felony with up to 10 years in prison and up to a
$10,000 fine."'

Burt noted that the CRA had already been
characterized during the factfinding meeting as a
relatively new, complicated statute. He agreed
with the characterization and reported that, none-
theless, the CRA is being increasingly invoked. He
stated that "I can only underscore what has al-
ready been said many, many times here today, and
that is that there is a tremendous need for the edu-
cation of everyone with respect to what that stat-
ute is and what can be done with it." The clarifica-
tion and healthy growth of the CRA over the years
will depend upon its appropriate prosecution, and
that depends upon the reporting of incidents when
they happen and on the cooperation and contin-
ued participation of victims and witnesses in pros-
ecution.

At the same time, he pointed out that in Massa-
chusetts there are several other criminal statutes
that can be applied against bias-motivated inci-
dents. One is another section of the same chapter
containing the CRA which makes it a crime to
assault or to commit assault and battery against
someone for the purpose of intimidating them on
the basis of race, religion, or national origin. A
different statute prohibits the defacing or destruc-

1 Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 265 § 37 (West 1990).

32

tion of a place of religious worship, and another
makes it a crime to discriminate against anyone in
a place of public accommodation.

Dr. Samuel B. Hand, the Chairperson of the
Vermont Advisory Committee, asked how juries
have reacted to cases brought under the CRA.
Burt responded that he had not yet had any that
had gone to a jury verdict up to the date of the
factfinding meeting. Consequently, he could not
speculate as to whether juries would be more will-
ing to convict for bias-motivated crimes or less
willing. On the other hand, he believed that judges
might prove to be a problem, and he reported that
he had had some experience with one or two
judges at the district court level "who have not
found incidents to be civil rights violations that I
strongly felt were civil rights violations." Mean-
while, the police have shown themselves to be
cooperative, and the various police departments
are learning more about the CRA as time passes.

Of course, not every civil rights violation is a
crime, said Burt, and "a certain amount of screen-
ing has to go into these things that have been re-
ported to us. But ... it is a priority of this district
attorney's office to prosecute these crimes when
they do come in, and we do that."

Lawyers Committee for Civil
Rights Under the Law

Ozell Hudson, Jr., the executive director of the
Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law of
the Boston Bar Association, mentioned that he
was a product of affirmative action as a university
student in Georgia who had come out of a segre-
gated public school system in Chatham County,
Georgia, having been born in Jeff Davis County
of the same State. He added that he had once
served as an attorney for students of the
UMASS/Amhcrst campus. He explained that the
national office of the Lawyers Committee was
founded in 1963, and that the Boston Lawyers
Committee began functioning in 1968 "as a pro

bono civil rights organization," and over the last
20 years the latter has focused on race and na-
tional origin discrimination.

In terms of education, the Lawyers Committee
filed the 1974 Boston school desegregation case
and at the time of the factfinding meeting had a
lawsuit pending against the Commonwealth of
Massachusetts dealing with equity in school fund-
ing. As part of its 10-year-old project to combat
racial violence, the Lawyers Committee has gone
into schools and colleges to work with adminis-
trators and students regarding issues of bias-moti-
vated violence. On the topic of the factfinding
meeting, Hudson said that "one of our biggest
problems has been to educate people in the law
enforcement community about the importance of
racial violence and hate crimes. . . and that they
need to make the appropriate response."

He noted that the Lawyers Committee is also
urging that in some jurisdictions and on some col-
lege campuses "there needs to be an external re-
view over law enforcement." He recalled that sev-
eral years earlier at UMASS, he represented a
coalition of women students, and "we actually had
to more or less lead a protest at the district
attorney's office to get him to hold an inquest"
into the cause of death of a young black UMASS
female student. On the other hand, Hudson
stressed that there are limitations and that:

the Federal Government does not have jurisdiction in these
cases most of the time unless there is some type of a con-
spiracy to deprive people of their constitutional rights or
rights guaranteed and protected under Federal law, or
there actually has to be some physical abuse by a person
acting under the cloak of officialdom, under color of law.
In most instances, you really can't even get the FBI to
investigate. There are also limitations on the State under
existing State criminal laws. [Some] just do not reach these
acts of racial violence and hate crimes, and so we have to
look and continue to try to create certain standards.

2 Mass. Gen. L. Ann. ch. 265 § 39 (West 1990).

3 Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 266 § 127A (West 1990).

4 Mass. Gen. L. Ann. ch. 272 § 98 (West 1970).

33

Hudson also commented on the debate "about
how far the university can go in regulating hate
crimes or racial violence, and the debate is based
upon the first amendment right." He suggested
that people recognize that:

what we all have in common is that we are all human
beings. Now, the one reason we need civil rights legislation
and laws to protect people from hate crimes is that every-
one is not recognized as a human being, and I specifically
say that for African Americans. . . . The institutions in this
country that control the perceptions and the distribution
of information and the education of folks still perceive of
African Americans and other [nonwhitc] persons to be in-
human, to be nonhuman, and that allows the majority to
go forward and continue to discriminate and to dehuman-
ize and to attack and to victimize people simply because of
the color of their skin.

For this reason, Hudson thought it "imperative
that universities and colleges develop certain stan-
dards in [drawing up guidelines] against certain

conduct, and this conduct can include speech."
While it would be unlawful to prohibit pure
speech, the Supreme Court has "not prohibited the
State from enacting laws to regulate speech that is
combined with conduct, especially conduct that is
injurious, that amounts to racial violence or hate
crimes that can be regulated, and does not violate
the first amendment."

He closed by emphasizing that there not only
need to be regulations and standards but also peo-
ple committed to eradicating hate crimes and to
taking the steps necessary to see that such laws,
once enacted, are enforced and that the adminis-
trators do their job. On the policy side, if a univer-
sity receiving Federal funds allows hate crimes and
racial violence to occur on its campus, the Federal
Government should cut off its funding, said Hud-
son.

34

5. Summary and Recommendations of Speakers

In Amherst, Massachusetts, representatives of the
State Advisory Committees serving Massachu-
setts, Vermont, and Connecticut heard almost
three dozen speakers discuss campus tensions stem-
ming from incidents based on racial or religious ig-
norance and bigotry. Several speakers also addressed
ways of overcoming bias-related problems on cam-
puses. The off-campus specialists were from agencies
ranging from the Anti-Defamation League of B'nai
B'rith to the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights
Under Law. Others not based on any college campus
came from the Massachusetts Department of Educa-
tion, the New England Board of Higher Education,
a district attorney's office serving two counties,
the Massachusetts State Police, and the Interna-
tional Association of Campus Law Enforcement
Administrators.

Among the campus-based panelists were 21
students, administrators, faculty, and staff from
UMASS/Amherst and Smith College. The day
opened with a look at how younger students may
react to racial and cultural diversity in primary
and secondary schools, and closed with a descrip-
tion of the efforts launched by the New England
Board of Higher Education to introduce more mi-
norities into the student populations and faculties
of colleges throughout New England.

All speakers either generally agreed that overt
"hate incidents," such as bias-motivated graffiti or
physical assault, occur or assumed that they
occur. At least two said that incidents have in-
creased around the Nation in recent years, with
the representative of the international campus se-
curity board characterizing the increase as "gigan-
tic." A third said that reports have increased at
her campus, though she was unsure as to whether
the change resulted from an increase in incidents
or improvements in the reporting system. From a
different campus, a fourth speaker speculated that
probably not all incidents are being reported. The
UMASS executive director for public safety
bluntly declared that, "racism still flourishes on
this campus," while a Smith College junior as-
serted that, in her whole life she had "never expe-
rienced as much racism as I have at Smith Col-
lege."

An off-campus specialist and one on-campus
specialist sketched profiles of typical perpetrators
of overt hate incidents affecting colleges. The
ADL representative described such perpetrators as
"generally white males between the ages of 16 and
24," many of whom seem not to know any blacks
or Jews personally. The director of the UMASS
office of human relations said that the perpetrator
is usually "a white male who has been drinking or
drunk — a first year student, perhaps a second year
student, . . . accompanied by younger brothers or
high school friends from home. Or the perpetrator
is the high school friend." Two students charged
that students of color have also been singled out
and brusquely treated by local police, while the
UMASS public safety head added that recruits to
the police academy are frequently 18-year-old
males who are issued a weapon and trained to
look out for the enemy from a military point of
view.

In citing the causes of less overt incidents, sev-
eral noted that perpetrators often act without mal-
ice and from ignorance of cultural differences, es-
pecially in cases in which minority students
reported being offended by curious classmates or
other persons they encounter on campus. One
UMASS faculty department head observed that
students, faculty, and staff come onto campus car-
rying with them "all of the prejudices and narrow-
mindedness that exist in the larger society." The
Smith College president spoke of the "social-
ization of a given student in her family, in the
town she comes from" which may not have pre-
pared the student to deal with people who are dif-
ferent, adding that, "almost all of the students — be
they [minority or majority students] — arrive on
campus having only lived with their own kind." A
Smith College professor pointed out that the
American campus of today is often the first multi-
racial social setting encountered by many students,
and their observations of how others treat or react
to discrimination affect their own views.

As to measures taken to combat campus bias,
the acting provost at UMASS/Amherst pointed to
the creation of a commission of students, faculty,
and staff to advise the university's administrators;
the development of a general education curriculum

35

requiring all students to take two social and cul-
tural diversity courses; the increase of cocurricular
programs on race and religion for faculty, stu-
dents, and staff; and the establishment of an office
of human relations. The Smith College president
noted the development and implementation of the
Smith College Design for Institutional Diversity
dealing with student admissions, the recruitment
and hiring of minority faculty and staff, and cur-
riculum improvements.

At least two UMASS/Amherst faculty mem-
bers acknowledged positive changes on campus
over two decades, but admitted that problems
persist. Several believed that problems will be ex-
acerbated by the drop in Federal and State fund-
ing to schools. The Smith College president voiced
the opinion that racism is so pervasive in America
that it is possible that no campus will be able to
rid itself of racism entirely. One of the two
UMASS professors went so far as to say that the
problem "may ultimately not be amenable to solu-
tions" because of the tendency among different
groups in America to experience "abrasion" be-
tween one group and another. Such abrasions
may not be so significant in a landscape as geo-
graphically expansive as the United States, but
"on a university campus, you are jammed to-
gether [so that abrasion] is going to constantly
arise."

Several students from both campuses noted
that the creation of distinct cultural centers has
been helpful, but at least one on each campus
charged that the competition for scarce resources
has led administrators to pit one minority center
against another. Two students discussed either
working for the admissions office or being im-
pressed by recruitment materials; the admissions
worker said that minority recruitment seemed un-
derfunded, and the second student claimed to
have been misled by recruitment materials into be-
lieving there would be larger communities of stu-
dents of color. A different student complained
that, once recruited, each minority student is left
to the mercy of an economy of scarcity without
the funds to continue his or her studies.

A student from each campus decried the hours
spent in frustrating negotiations with administra-
tors over their grievances and demands. A Jewish
student said that when the first day-long work-
shop on the experiences of minorities was organ-
ized on her campus, Jewish students and profes-

sors found that they were omitted. Upon advocat-
ing for inclusion, they were told that anti-Semitism
was not considered a form of racism.

The UMASS human relations director, who
said that he maintained a scorecard on the
administration's responses to students' demands
for change, reported that the administration had
met 90 percent of the students' demands, but not
the critical demands. The chairperson of the
UMASS/Amherst Afro- American studies depart-
ment, who had taught on campus for over two
decades, stated that "the university and all of our
best efforts alone will not suffice to solve the prob-
lem;" confessing that she did not know how to
solve it, she nevertheless urged that all continually
try. A UMASS/Amherst associate dean of stu-
dents asserted that the university, like the Nation,
is "either unwilling or unable to face the issue of
race or racism." He observed that when a racial
incident occurs, the issue becomes diluted because
the concerns of other groups are added, and
"when we always group all of our issues together,
we never seem to focus on the issue of race."

Despite many reminders of persistent shortcom-
ings— even failures — in past and current attempts
to stem racial and religious bigotry on campus,
several speakers did voice recommendations. The
attorney from ADL called for joint action projects
involving groups in conflict; dialogue is necessary
but not enough. After the 1986 World Series, she
and others urged dialogue and hotlines, but those
alone did not prove productive or lasting. The rep-
resentative of the international campus security
board said that police officers need improved
training, and the UMASS public safety head pro-
posed that college training be required of all police
applicants and that collective-bargaining contracts
be negotiated to permit removal of an officer if
cause can be shown.

UMASS/Amherst and Smith College students
urged that more minority students and faculty be
recruited to their campuses, and one asked that
each professor notice whether students of color are
enrolled in his or her class and, if not, consider
how to become more inclusive. A UMASS student
believed that, "modifying the university's perspec-
tive on the core curriculum may be the most im-
portant change needed." He argued that African
American studies, Asian American studies, and
the like stand on the periphery of the core curricu-
lum, and what now requires modification are the
standard courses on philosophy, literature, his-

36

tory, and the like. A Smith College student urged
that eampuses recognize the rights and needs of
religious minorities.

The UMASS legal studies professor observed
that the first amendment defines and protects the
nature of the university for the existence of the
university depends upon the first amendment free-
doms to inquire and to teach; harassment and in-
timidation deprive victims of their right to enjoy
such freedoms. Therefore, the university must find
a way to secure for all the right to these freedoms
by making it possible to sanction expressions of
racial and religious harassment which prevent vic-
tims from enjoying their rights.

In the meanwhile, the UMASS human rela-
tions director and the State police representative
separately recommended that students be in-
formed of the civil rights statutes already avail-
able to protect them and instructed in how to
apply them. The former also said that the Federal
Government should publish guidelines on how to
combat racial and religious harassment in the

same way that the U.S. Equal Employment Op-
portunity Commission issued guidelines pre-
cluding sexual harassment in the workplace.

A Smith College professor noted that the cam-
paigns to limit public smoking and drinking and
driving resulted in focusing on the behavior of
people and not their attitudes or whether they are
responsible for their actions. Once a consensus de-
veloped that people have a "right to breathe air
untainted by cigarette smoke," people insisted that
smoking in public places be limited regardless of
how smokers felt about the matter. In terms of
alcohol, drinkers once were considered less respon-
sible for what occurred while they were intoxi-
cated; however, today's consensus holds that
drinkers should be held responsible for the out-
comes of their behavior. The Smith College profes-
sor suggested that in like fashion a consensus
should be achieved which recognizes that "even
unintended discrimination is terribly hurtful and
harmful. ..." By doing so, it may become possible
to create bias-free educational settings.

37

6. Findings and Recommendations

B

ascd on the foregoing, the Massaehusetts Advi-
sory Committee offers the following findings
and recommendations:

1. Finding

By all accounts, bias-related incidents continue
to occur at UMASS and Smith College and re-
portedly on other campuses. Such incidents are
of at least two kinds: 1) overt incidents moti-
vated by racial or religious prejudice and some-
times involving physical assault; and 2) covert
incidents involving persons acting or speaking
out of ignorance of the cultural, religious, or
ethnic background of the individual offended.

Recommendation

Campus authorities should continue to encour-
age victims to report overt incidents and should
tabulate all such reports and continue to help
students and others to understand the effects
of both overt discrimination and covert
discrimination.

2. Finding

Top administrators at UMASS and Smith Col-
lege arc aware of the problems associated with
bias-related incidents and have taken specific
steps to combat the problems, but many minor-
ity students, some faculty, and even a few ad-
ministrators view those steps as insufficient or
ineffective.

Recommendation

Top administrators should be encouraged to
continue their efforts and be given additional
assistance by all levels of government to
strengthen and, where appropriate, to diversify
those efforts.

3. Finding

Religious minorities have found themselves
omitted from some campus efforts intended to
reduce ignorance or tensions associated with
bias-related incidents.

Recommendation

Religious minorities should be accorded equal
treatment when campus efforts are made to re-
duce ignorance or tensions resulting from bias-
related incidents.

4. Finding

Covert bias-motivated incidents tend to be com-
mitted by white males in their teens or early
twenties, many of whom may have grown up in
communities in which there is little or no social
interaction among different racial or religious
groups. That incidents of bigotry have been re-
ported at a prestigious women's college indi-
cates that females of college age may engage in
covert incidents as well.

Recommendation

The importance of encouraging multicultural
education and interaction before a student's
college years should be increasingly emphasized
at the elementary school level or no later than
the secondary school level. Any multicultural
education still required at the college level
should be recognized as important remedial
work — as necessary as remedial English or re-
medial math is for many students.

5. Finding

Campuses have instituted multicultural courses
as part of campaigns to reduce bigotry and ig-
norance by increasing awareness. At UMASS
two such courses are mandatory. But standard
courses that are components of the core curric-
ulum are considered by some minority students
as bereft of multicultural viewpoints.

Recommendation

Where the core curriculum has already been
modified to reflect a multicultural awareness, a
periodic review of the curriculum should be
done and improvements made, as necessary.
Where no changes in the core curriculum or its
component courses have taken place, a review
should be started and modifications begun to be

38

made. In cither case, student representatives
should be invited to engage in the review pro-
cess.

6. Finding

Campuses have established cultural centers to
provide minority students with a setting for
mutual support where they can also share their
unique interests. However, the scarcity of re-
sources to maintain such centers has sometimes
led to conflicts among different groups of mi-
nority students and with administrators over
how available resources have been allocated.

Recommendation

Campus administrators should involve students
in the process of periodically reviewing what
the resources arc and how they can be best allo-
cated or reallocated and where additional re-
sources should be sought.

7. Finding

Students of different racial or religious back-
grounds have often come into conflict with
each other, and such conflicts sometimes occur
between two different minority communities.

Recommendation

As a way to improve relations between major-
ity and minority groups or between different
minority groups, structured events aimed at di-
alogue between the conflicting groups should
be seen as only an initial or minimal step. The
conflicting groups should also be encouraged
to design and launch joint projects for closer,
positive interaction and more lasting results.

8. Finding

The undergraduate's life cycle on campus is
around 4 years, and any knowledge or hard-
won experience gained by a student during that
time is often lost to the campus upon the stu-
dent's graduation; new undergraduates then ar-
rive with the potential for repeating problems
of bigotry and racial or religious misunder-
standing.

Recommendation

Campus personnel and students alike should be
encouraged to devise ways of preserving on
campus the heritage of any positive experiences
so that those experiences are not lost to new

students. Where possible, minority alumni —
both recent and from earlier decades — should
be encouraged to contribute to the continuing
process of evaluation and reflection aimed at
reducing bigotry and racial or religious misun-
derstanding at their alma mater.

9. Finding

The recruitment of minority students and fac-
ulty is inadequate or uneven and has been fur-
ther hurt by limitations on scholarships or fi-
nancial aid for needy minority students.

Recommendation

The Federal Government should announce un-
ambiguous support for minority scholarships
and other aid intended to enable needy minority
students to afford college and should also offer
them scholarship incentives to embark upon
graduate work in preparation for college-level
teaching.

10. Finding

Students and other campus personnel may be
no more aware of the civil rights statutes in-
tended to protect them than are any other resi-
dents of Massachusetts.

Recommendation

Concerted efforts by the enforcement offices of
the Federal, State, and local governments
should be made to apprise all on campus, and
particularly students, of the various statutes en-
acted to combat bias-related incidents. Special
attention should be given to the application of
the Massachusetts Civil Rights Act.

11. Finding

Police personnel are not fully trained to deal
with problems associated with racial and reli-
gious bigotry and may even contribute to the
problems by brusque, if not, improper treat-
ment of students of color.

Recommendation

The kind of multicultural education needed on
campus should be tailored to the needs of police
departments both on- and off-campus.

39

12. Finding

The monitoring of efforts to safeguard the civil
rights of minority college students is uneven or
ad hoc at best despite the number of public and
private agencies involved in responses to bias-
motivated incidents.

Recommendation

The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, which
held a consultation on the subject of campus
tensions and issued a report in October 1990,

should consider organizing a followup event in
1995, which could assess the status of the prob-
lem at the midpoint of the decade. The State
Advisory Committees which have held similar
events in New England and elsewhere should
consider return visits to the colleges they in-
volved around the same time.

40

Appendix A

1990 College Enrollment by Race

Total Native

Asian

Black

Hispanic

White

American

American

United States

13.7 million 103,000

555,000

1,223,000

758,000

10,675,000

0.75%*

4.05%

8.92%

5.53%

77.86%

UMASS/ Amherst

26,025

0.2%

2.8%

2.8%

2.8%

85.1%

Smith College

3,058

0.3%

8.6%

4.1%

3.2%

77.7%

UCONN/Storrs

25,497

0.4%

3.5%

3.5%

2.9%

86.6%

Wesleyan University

3,419

0.1%

6.3%

7.2%

3.0%

80.4%

UVM/Buriington

11,076

0.2%

2.7%

0.8%

1.2%

93.3%

Middlebury College

2,039

0.0%

4.5%

3.0% 2.7%

87.8%

Source: "College Enrollment by Racial and Ethnic Group," Chronicle of Higher Education, Mar. 18, 1992, p. A-35.
* Percentages will not total 100 percent because foreign students of all races are omitted.

41

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42

engage in debate. In the 1970s, a black
Harvard professor named Martin Kilson
wrote a widely publicized article charging
that black students practiced segregation
by always sitting together in cafeterias. In
response, a group of black students con-
ducted research that found that while
many black students did eat together,
most had a wider range of friends and
were involved in a greater variety of ac-
tivities than most white students. This
was far more effective than picketing or
branding Kilson an Uncle Tom.

■ Save your indignation for truly impor-
tant confrontations. Roberta Morton, now
a legal defense lawyer, suggests, "Do your
best, don't let racism distract you, and
don't come expecting a problem."

■ Explain the role of colleges and univer-
sities. Many students view college as a
"reward" for studying. But a primary role
of universities is to meet the educational
needs of the society. That's why they re-
ceive tax exemptions.

You got into college because you were
motivated and because the society under-
stands that it's better off with more black
lawyers, doctors and leaders. Moreover,
restricted access to education is one rea-
son black communities don't have the hu-
man resources they need.

However, if you receive a preference,
you also incur a responsibility. Brandon
Balthazar, a management consultant, re-
minds black students, "You don't have to
justify yourself to anyone else, but you are
obligated to do more than simply look out
for yourself."

■ Celebrate the black heritage in education.

Learn about your black alumni. Fath Davis
Ruffins, a historian (and my wife), points
out that at Harvard alone, "giving black
students a chance produced W.E.B. Du
Bois, Charles Hamilton Houston, Alain
Locke, Ralph Bunche and others." She also
suggests teaching other students about
how our struggle has benefited them. For
example, black colleges were havens for
Holocaust survivors after World War II
and for blacklisted scholars during the Mc-
Carthy period. The civil rights movement
did much to silence conservatives who ar-
gued that women were taking spaces from
"more qualified" men. And without the stu-
dent aid bills championed by black con*
gressmen Adam Clayton Powell and Gus
Hawkins, many working-class white stu-
dents could never afford a higher educa-
tion.

■ Take a stand on principles that will sup-
port you in the long run. You can never
win by advocating censorship or being rac-
ist or antisemitic or sexist. Peter Ivan
Armstrong, also an administrative fellow,
declares, "We cannot be selectively toler-
ant. As a black southerner I do consider
the Confederate flag a symbol of racism
and violence. But when a white student
hung a Confederate flag out of her win-
dow, I supported President Bok's decision
to allow her do it."

You don't have to passively accept rac-
ist behavior — campuses also value civility
and eloquence. "If someone can only en-
gage in free speech by calling you a nig-
ger," Armstrong muses, "you should insist
that anyone who calls themselves a college
student should be more articulate."

43

Appendix C

Testimony Offered Before the Massachusetts Advisory Committee
to the United States Commission on Civil Riehts

Fletcher A. Blanchard

Smith College

September 27, 1991

What you say about racial discrimination and interracial acceptance
matters. Your vocal opinions affect what others think and say. A series of
experiments that I and my students and colleagues have conducted recently
demonstrate that racial prejudice and reactions to racism are much more
malleable than many researchers, policy makers, and political leaders have
believed. Simply overhearing others condemn or condone racial harassment
dramatically affects people's personal reactions to racism. After hearing
someone else condemn racism, our college student research participants
expressed much more strongly antiracist sentiments than they did in the
absence of a sense of what others believe. However, after hearing someone
condone racism, college students voiced much less strongly antiracist views.
The large differences that we observed appear both when research
participants speak their views publicly and when we measure their opinions
more anonymously. The observation that even more privately held views are
affected by what others say is important because it suggests that the
malleability we have observed is not simply a reflection of concerns for what
others think.

I suspect that one of the reasons that the opinions about racism held
by many people are so easily influenced derives from the still high level of
racial segregation that characterizes contemporary American society. Few
White college students today have enjoyed the opportunity to grow up in
integrated neighborhoods, attend schools where their own classrooms are
substantially integrated, or observe their parents interact in a friendly manner
with people of color. Even fewer of those White students entering college
today have had the chance to learn from Black teachers, work for Black
employers, or participate in voluntary activities and organizations where the
adult leaders, coaches, or advisers are Black. Although public opinion poll
data over the last several decades portray largely favorable trends regarding
Whites' attitudes toward African Americans, those attitudes and opinions
derive from little direct experience. Few of the many Whites who have
reached an honest commitment to egalitarian values have had the opportunity
to acquire the full range of interpersonal skills, sensibilities, and knowledge
that might allow them to fulfill that commitment. It is this lack of interracial
experience that may underlie the malleability of reactions to racism.

America's campuses today constitute the first multiracial social
setting encountered by many young people. Furthermore, the racial and
ethnic composition of American campuses will continue to become
increasingly heterogeneous over the next two decades. Coinciding with these
changes in composition has been an alarming increase in racial harassment.
Yet, the strongly favorable trend toward more egalitarian racial attitudes
among Americans broadly makes it difficult to attribute this high rate of
racist attacks on college campuses to an increase in racial prejudice among
the many. Rather, I would suggest that much of the current incidence of
harassment should be understood to represent the open hostility expressed by
the strongly prejudiced few.

44

Fletcher A. Blanchard
page 2 of 3

Efforts that will reduce racial harassment and discrimination and
enhance feelings of acceptance and belonging among people of color must
acknowledge the many who are naive, inexperienced, and often well-
intentioned, on the one hand, and the few who are genuinely mean-spirited,
on the other. For the most part colleges and universities have responded to
the contemporary clamor with education and training for students and staff
and with new codes that attempt to define appropriate conduct Neither of
these strategies has yet produced the ideal educational setting where all
members of the academic community can thrive.

The best of the codes of conduct signal a strong and public
institutional commitment to the protection of civil rights. Often this is
achieved by borrowing language from federal and state civil rights statutes
and integrating it with a statement of the institution's academic mission.
Well drawn policies delineate the responsibilities of all parts of the institution
under the policy and concretely specify patterns of accountability. Effective
institutional civil rights policies also invite regular, broad review of operating
procedures to ensure their compatibility with the institutional commitment to
civil rights. I believe that civil rights policies are especially important when
it comes to regulating the behavior of the relatively few committed bigots.

Attention to the discriminatory consequences of behavior is required
if the institution is to become the sort of educational setting where everyone
can thrive. However, mere punishment for isolated, unintentional mistakes
and insensitivities offers little guidance for the honestly well-intentioned, yet
inexperienced. Rather, the specter of punishment may deter interracial
interaction among those who privately suspect they may not measure up. For
fear of doing the wrong thing, the inexperienced sometimes choose to avoid
situations where their naivete may be observed by others. It is reward,
usually in the form of praise, that shapes new behavior. Although it may be
more difficult to notice interracial kindness and respect, it is attention to
instances of favorable interracial behavior and the delivery of praise
following it that will provide the conditions under which the well-intentioned
will acquire the skills they currently lack.

But the many unintentional, yet hurtful acts performed by the
inexperienced do affect greatly the interracial climate of an organization.
That people of color often find themselves numerically underrepresented in
academic institutions exaggerates the discomfort and pain that arises out of
the infrequent 'insensitivities' performed by any one of the many. Consider
an organization in which ten percent of the people are Black and ninety
percent are White. Imagine a department of that organization in which ten
people work, nine of whom are White and one of whom is Black. Imagine
further that all nine of the Whites perceive themselves to be unprejudiced and
have adopted a genuine commitment to egalitarian values. If each of those
well-intentioned Whites makes only one insensitive 'mistake' a month, the
one Black target of the nine naive Whites would experience on average some
hurtful behavior every third day. While the personal experience that defines
the social reality for the numerically underrepresented person of color
consists of a high rate of discriminatory and isolating behaviors directed
toward her or him, the personal experiences of the well-intentioned Whites
define a social reality relatively free of harassment and discrimination. The
well-intentioned White is aware of only one insensitive event over the last
month. Reduce the proportion of African Americans or add an intentional
racist and the resulting setting becomes even more aversive. This imbalance

45

Fletcher A. Blanchard
page 3 of 3

in perceptions of the rate of discrimination and insensitivity exacerbates the
potential for misunderstanding. Educational strategies are required to reduce
the rate of unintentional harm caused by inexperienced people. The best
educational techniques emphasize vivid and concrete examples of the hurtful
and harmful behavior of the naive.

Let me conclude by returning to the implications of the research I
described at the beginning of my remarks and leave you with two metaphors
that drive my understanding of the potential for achieving educational
settings where everyone can thrive. First, I would like you to think about the
way that anti-smoking norms and regulations have largely achieved the
elimination of smoke from public places. When a broad consensus was
reached that persons have a right to breathe air untainted by cigarette smoke,
when non-smokers took the responsibility for criticizing smokers and insisted
that they not smoke, cigarette smoke in public places disappeared. No one
cared about the personal feelings, internal attitudes, or out-of-context
behavior of the smokers. If we can build a consensus that eschews the
behavior of bigotry, we may be able to create settings that are free of bigotry.

Second, I invite you to think about how the social movement against
drinking and driving has transformed our thinking about personal
responsibility for behavior performed while intoxicated. It used to be the
case that drunkenness served to deflect blame and reduce responsibility for
behavior. Drunkenness was akin to diminished capacity. Persons who
performed what otherwise constitutes serious criminal behavior were held
less responsible for the outcomes of their acts because we thought they didn't
intend those outcomes. Of course, this has changed now. We now hold
persons responsible for the outcomes of their drunken behavior. If we can
build a consensus that recognizes that even unintended discrimination is
terribly hurtful and harmful and that each of us is personally responsible for
our unintended racism, we may be able to create educational settings that are
as welcoming and comfortable for people of color as they have been for
centuries for others.

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