On Tuesday, Nov. 2 Elizabethtown College President Cecilia M. McCormick, J.D. and the Senior Leadership Team sent an email to the Etown community entitled “Creating a Sense of Belonging for all at Elizabethtown College.”
In the email, they apologized for not condemning a series of “inexcusable” racist and biased behaviors and incidents that occurred in classrooms, residence halls, social events and off-campus in a more timely manner. They also specifically denounced the use of racial slurs on campus at any time for any reason.
After the apology for failure to appropriately respond to past incidents, the email detailed how students can report bias-related incidents. The reporting process was instituted this semester, which resulted in an increase in reported bias-related incidents. When an incident is reported, the Bias-Incident Taskforce will employ their resources to investigate the incident and hold any offending parties accountable for their actions. So far, the reporting system has made the Etown community more aware of bias incidents that take place and that they are not tolerated.
The email then shifted to looking towards the future and creating a safer, healthier and more inclusive environment built on mutual respect, fairness and justice. It encourages everyone to follow Etown’s founding principles of social justice, peace and human dignity when learning and interacting with each other on and off campus as well as inside and outside of the classroom. However, this transformation will take time to be established, so everyone must be committed and supportive of creating a sense of belonging for all on campus.
“We have a shared responsibility to show the world what type of people come from Elizabethtown College. We do not take that lightly and we hope you do not either,” the email concluded.
This is not the first time the College has faced bias incidents on campus.
On Wednesday, Sept. 12, 2018 a student reported to Campus Security that homophobic slurs had been written on their whiteboard and a note was slipped underneath their door, stating that they were not welcome in the residence hall. Etown president at the time Carl Strikwerda explained the incident in an email sent to the community a few days after it had taken place. The email urged students to contact Campus Security to report similar incidents and to contact Counselling Services if they need assistance and resources to process the incident.
On another more recent occasion, a former student said the n word on the social media website Facebook in the summer of 2020, nearing the end of the spring semester. This prompted backlash from students and a message from McCormick stating that messages of hate will not be tolerated.
Overcoming bias and prejudice to create a more just and inclusive world takes a lot of time, effort and support, but educating each other and bringing more awareness to these issues is an important first step. Hopefully the College and the entire Etown community continue to learn and grow from these incidents in order to create a better campus for all.
