An escalation in the number of reported acts of intolerance has prompted the Dean’s Office to reexamine and improve its incident protocol system.

It is unclear whether more acts of intolerance are in fact occurring, or whether victimized students feel more comfortable than they have in the past using the University’s venues to report these incidents.

“It isn’t always easy to classify hate crimes because they may first fall into acts of vandalism or some other crime, but we have definitely received more reports of acts of intolerance this semester than in the past,” said Director of Public Safety Dave Meyer.

Discussion began in earnest when students found racist graffiti in Clark Hall during the spring of 2006, and escalated with the appearance of more graffiti in residence halls over the summer.

“We are trying to develop a more sophisticated system to determine what type of act will elicit what type of response, what is at stake, and how to proceed depending on the context,” said Dean for Diversity and Academic Advancement Daniel Teraguchi, who inaugurated the new position in the Dean’s office this year.

“I think that we have the beginnings of a very strong structure for dealing with acts of intolerance after they happen,” said President Doug Bennet. “Because of this new structure, maybe we’re getting more reports of hate than we used to.”

According to the Code of Non-Academic conduct in the University’s Student Handbook, the University forbids such acts as “the use or threat of physical violence, coercion, intimidation, and verbal harassment and abuse.” In addition, it reads that “discriminatory harassment may be punished more severely than nondiscriminatory forms of harassment.”

However, Teraguchi said that he sees a need for greater specificity in order to better address reports of assaulting acts and speech.

“What constitutes intimidation or injury?” Teraguchi asked. “A word can be injurious based on its historical connotations and what is symbolizes. Language is loaded, and even legislation that looks good on the surface can be discriminatory.”

Teraguchi also raised the dilemma of determining which crimes should be reported in all-campus e-mails, and what details to include in these messages.

“What really warrants a message?” he asked. “And supposing a crime involved a racial slur, should those remarks be included in the campus-wide e-mail so that students become aware of what specific words are injurious? Or would that hurt the victim of the crime all over again? We need an approach that is specific enough to be useful, but does not cause any additional harm.”

Resulting from recent efforts, the administration has created a Campus Climate Log, which will alert the community of assaulting speech, words, and acts, as well as post educational events concerning both prevention and intervention efforts. Teraguchi said that he expects the log to be up and running in a few weeks.

Other University constituencies have also responded with action. Tuesday, University Protestant Chaplain Gary Comstock hosted a healing ritual in the Memorial Chapel. During the event, students had the opportunity to write down their worries on paper and burn them as a symbol of release.

“A student came to me because of concerns about these happenings on campus, and suggested the ritual idea,” Comstock said. “I believe that pain and frustration are really important signals that all is not well, and we need to be honest with ourselves. It’s important that we consider even those who are not directly connected with these incidents.”

Melanie Jung ’08, an RA in 200 Church, said that the residence has been used to hold forums for discussion and unity in the wake of recent intolerant acts on campus.

“There was a forum earlier on the year with Ujaama talking about Middletown Police, and there was also a unity forum just a week or so ago that hoped to speak to bridge the gaps between upper and under classmen,” she said.

The University is not alone in experiencing incidents of intolerance on campus. The Hartford Courant recently interviewed students from Trinity College who demonstrated against feelings of racism at the college. The Day, a New London newspaper, reported racist acts taking place at Connecticut College.

“A college campus makes for a captive audience, where students can’t necessarily avoid injurious behavior that takes place,” Teraguchi said. “That means we as an administration have a greater responsibility towards our students to address any acts that injure or inhibit dialogue.”

Bennet stressed that such acts do not represent the thoughts or feelings of the bulk of Wesleyan’s student body.

“I think that when [these events] do occur I have to believe alcohol is part of it, because the acts don’t comport with what I believe is Wesleyan student culture,” Bennet said. “You can’t for a minute ignore such a tax but on the other hand you can’t let it define campus life, or you can’t let it define Wesleyan student culture, because that’s not who we are, that’s not what we do.”