Moving on campus for the first time or even just coming back to school can come with a lot of stress. That stress was heightened for Elizabethtown College students during the first few weeks when on Aug. 26 and Sept. 7, Etown students received emails about bias incidents that occurred on campus and online. The frequency and timing of the incidents have left a lot of students feeling uneasy about the rest of the year.
Some students are left feeling helpless in the situation because they are not student leaders or members of any of the groups being targeted.
“It is in these times that acting is essential”, Kesha Morant Williams, Senior Advisor for College Diversity, Equity & Belonging and one of the leaders of Bias Task Force said. “The saying “see something, say something” is essential. Sometimes people observe behaviors that they know just don’t seem right but choose not to get involved. Perhaps they assume someone else submitted a report, or that it isn’t their responsibility. It is all of our responsibility to hold our community to a standard of appropriate behavior”.
If anyone has been the victim of a bias incident, reporting that information is essential.
“Reporting sheds light on incidents but also gives us an opportunity to provide support and education,” said Nichole Gonzalez, Vice President for Student Life and Dean of Students and one of the other leaders of the Bias Task Force on campus.
While the high amount of incidents reported in the first few weeks has raised a lot of alarm, it also brings awareness to the fact that students know their resources and know how to report what is happening. People are not staying silent on what is happening to them and that matters.
For those spreading bias-related messaging across campus, there are a multitude of consequences for such actions and this behavior is not tolerated by any leader on campus. The punishments could vary from, “something more educational, restorative, reporational, to something more punitive, maybe some level of probation or moving residence halls or not being allowed to live in the residence halls or even suspension or expulsion,” Gonzalez said. Etown takes these incidents seriously and aims to address them on a case by case basis based on what victims want and the severity of the issue.
Consequences have come already as a result of the bias incidents. For the first-year dorms where the majority of incidents occurred, Schlosser and Founders, only residents of the buildings can now get in, and visitors have to be let in by residents of those dorms. Additionally, this change will not just be limited to first year dorms and will extend to all the dorms.This adjustment is not meant to just be punitive, but to center around creating a safer environment in the dorms. The intent is also to encourage personal accountability for those letting people into the building as well as to limit who is entering and exiting the buildings in which the incidents are happening the most. This also follows how most colleges in the area operate as a lot of the time colleges even require residents to sign in and out guests.
Changes like these impact the whole community because bias impacts the whole community.
“We like to be like ‘This isn’t who Etown is,’ but we have to accept that, no, it actually is a part of our community. And until we accept that and try to change that part of who we are, we’re not going to be part,” Gonzalez said. “So it’s an understanding and acknowledging that this is harmful to the entire community and it is harmful to specific people in the community.”
In the future, the Office of Opportunity Access and Engagement, Civil Rights and Title IX are working together to create learning and engagement efforts in the first-year dorms to further encourage awareness of bias. With learning and open conversation about bias even outside of planned events comes a hope that these incidents can be prevented in the future and that the climate of Etown can continue to change for the better in the future.
