2008 Woodie Awards
Another whiteboard incident reported
John DeBruicker
Issue date: 3/2/07 Section: News & Features
- Page 1 of 1
Students in Dana Residence Hall on Saturday night found homophobic language written on the whiteboard outside their door. At press time, nothing is known about the identity of the writers or the cause.
The incident is the first reported of its kind this year, but antisemetic, racist and homophobic language have been a recurring problem at the College in years past. "This is not something new to the College," said Paul Johnston, dean of students. "We're not unique in this sort of thing. The College is in many ways a microcosm of society, and there are people in society that say and do insensitive and inappropriate things."
Johnston said that hateful language is indicative of the need for further education around these issues. "They don't understand how hurtful and painful these issues can be," he said. Despite numerous multicultural efforts on behalf of the College and its students, which undergo diversity training in their first week on campus, Johnston says there is still work to be done. "We're not there yet. We certainly haven't solved this issue on this campus and I suspect on many others."
According to Johnston, in order to bring the culprits to justice, there would need to be an eyewitness of the event. "Nobody has come forward to take responsibility and so far nobody witnessed it," he said. "It would be unfortunate if this was to go unchecked. If people have information that would be helpful I would encourage them to come in and talk with us."
Johnston said it is difficult to determine the consequences of such an act without knowing the person's disciplinary record up to this point.
According to Johnston, Menya Hinga '09 of Mary Low Hall was the Head Resident on duty Saturday night. Hinga could not be reached for comment.
The incident is the first reported of its kind this year, but antisemetic, racist and homophobic language have been a recurring problem at the College in years past. "This is not something new to the College," said Paul Johnston, dean of students. "We're not unique in this sort of thing. The College is in many ways a microcosm of society, and there are people in society that say and do insensitive and inappropriate things."
Johnston said that hateful language is indicative of the need for further education around these issues. "They don't understand how hurtful and painful these issues can be," he said. Despite numerous multicultural efforts on behalf of the College and its students, which undergo diversity training in their first week on campus, Johnston says there is still work to be done. "We're not there yet. We certainly haven't solved this issue on this campus and I suspect on many others."
According to Johnston, in order to bring the culprits to justice, there would need to be an eyewitness of the event. "Nobody has come forward to take responsibility and so far nobody witnessed it," he said. "It would be unfortunate if this was to go unchecked. If people have information that would be helpful I would encourage them to come in and talk with us."
Johnston said it is difficult to determine the consequences of such an act without knowing the person's disciplinary record up to this point.
According to Johnston, Menya Hinga '09 of Mary Low Hall was the Head Resident on duty Saturday night. Hinga could not be reached for comment.
Viewing Comments 1 - 1 of 1
Lt. Pete Mitchell
posted 3/02/07 @ 10:02 AM EST
It's pretty clear that Colby College administration still has a ways to go in their effort to brainwash the entire student body into never saying, implying, thinking, or even thinking about thinking anything that might, could, or should offend just one person. (Continued…)
Post a Comment