Discrimination is Happening on UGA’s Campus. What Can be Done About it?

By: Adia Aidoo

From an anti-immgration email sent  out by a university employee to a video of fraternity members whipping each other and saying racial slurs to swastikas drawn on the doors of Jewish students, it seems like UGA has an issue with discrimination on campus. To some students it seems like these incidents keep happening, but nothing is being sufficiently done to combat these incidents and to ensure the safety and comfort of minority students at this University. 

When asked, the majority of students say that the University does not do enough to protect minority students from discrimination. 

UGA conducted a survey in the Fall of 2015 called the “Count Me In” survey. The goal of this survey was to give a voice to UGA students, staff, and faculty on if UGA was a welcoming place for all people. What the survey found was that 16% of people who took the survey felt like they experienced “exclusionary, intimidating, offensive, and/or hostile conduct.” on campus. Among those 16%, 23% of respondents felt the behavior they experienced was based on gender or gender identity, another 23% felt it was based on ethnicity, and 19% felt it was based on race.

Over the last year at UGA there have been a few high profile cases of racial and religious discrimination that has affected this campus. 

In Fall of 2018, a university employee sent an email to the UGA library’s employees listserv in response to a press release made by the American Library Association that condemned the Trump administration for their family separation policy. The email stated opinions such as:

“To encourage illegal activity and give them food, house and rest and a Country to break our laws. That is how they began their life with our Country. What makes us think they will live with different morals since they’ve crossed over the border illegally? What do we want for this Country now? Total Immorality? Injustice? Chaos? Cheating? Lying? Stealing? Killing?”

The email was sent to various multicultural organizations on campus including the Hispanic Student Association, UGA NAACP, and The UGA Multicultural Services office.

An investigation by the Equal Opportunity Office was made into this incident, but the UGA employee was not reprimanded for the email. The employee retired at the end of that semester after working at the university for 30 years.

A few months after the email incident, a Snapchat video went viral on social media depicting a handful of members from the Xi Lambda chapter of Tau Kappa Epsilon whipping each other with belts and saying racial slurs. The video launched a large student response condemning the actions of the students and racism on the campus. UGA released a statement on Twitter condemning the actions of these students and the fraternity was suspended on campus by the national organization. The members of the fraternity were expelled from the fraternity, but  the students in the video were not reprimanded by the university. 

Many students find that in the aftermath of incidents like the ones explained above, there are a lot of students led responses and events, but not many responses or events held by the administration to address these issues. 

For example, in the aftermath of the TKE video, the Student Government Association along side UGA NAACP held a town hall where students were able to air their grievances about racism on campus. At the event, there was a noticeable lack of UGA administrators there to hear the student’s concerns regarding the issue. 

Jack Henry Decker is a third-year political science major at UGA. Over the summer he was an orientation leader who has to keep the interest of the university in mind for his job, but is also critical and aware of the inequalities that this campus perpetuates. When asked about the differences between student responses against discrimination versus the administration’s responses against discrimination this was his response: 

“Regardless of whether or not the administrators are making statements about stuff happening, they should at least be present in hearing student grievances. Whereas when things like this happen on this campus sometimes it feels like students who care about it… are kinda just shouting into the void” 

Regardless of any instance of discrimination, the university has an interest in protecting itself to avoid legal trouble. The Equal Opportunity Office is the entity that all complaints of discrimination go through to be effectively dealt with. Displayed prominently in the front page of the Equal Opportunity Office’s website is UGA’s Non-Discrimination and Anti-Harassment (NDAH) policy. The NDAH are the guidelines followed by UGA faculty, staff, and students to ensure an inclusive and safe campus. 

The Equal Opportunity Office works through a process that is handled by an investigator to make sure that that the process is fair for all parties involved, and that adequate consequences are handed out for the severity of the discrimination incident so neither side feels slighted by university’s decision. When asked about how consequences are given to those who perpetuate discrimination on campus, the director of  the Equal Opportunity Office, Eryn Jaynce Hawkins, gave this answer to the question:

“The investigator decides on sanctions based “on the severity and nature of the discrimination or harassment, the weight of the evidence, and the need to maintain a safe and respectful environment.”  How they are carried out would depend on the sanction and the facts.”

Even though the University has this entity dedicated to making sure that UGA’s campus is discrimination-free that follows many rules and regulations that are based in the laws of this state, many students still don’t feel adequately protected by Equal Opportunity Office. 

Ariana Mbumwe is a second-year political science major who is the social chair of the Young Democrats of UGA. She feels passionately about how the university doesn’t do enough to protect the interest of minority students on campus. When asked about how the university deals with instances of discrimination this was her response:

“There are a ton of minority students who don’t feel as though the university backs them up. When instances of racism come up on campus… the university has used a non-harsh tone for the consequences the students face, that tells the minority students that your feelings are important but not that important that I’m going to change anything.”

Students have ideas that could begin to help ease the tensions that racism brings to UGA’s campus. Some have suggested mandatory cultural sensitivity training similar to alcohol and sexual assault trainings freshman take upon their arrival at UGA. Others have suggested better recruitment and preparation for students in minority-majority areas. Some have even suggested reparational scholarships for the students in Athens-Clarke county whose ancestors built this university as slaves. Minority students have interest in increasing diversity at UGA to make the campus more inclusive for future minority students to feel like they have a home in Athens. There are many solutions posed to help minority students like the Office of Inclusivity that opened this year, but according to students more steps need to be taken to protect all UGA students, especially the more vulnerable ones.