Racist graffiti was found on Friday, Feb. 17 in Clark Hall, a site of hate and bias-related incidents in the past. According to an anonymous but reputable source, “I hate [racial expletive]s” was written on a student of color’s dry-erase board.
“This is a clear indication that Wesleyan isn’t the so-called Diversity University,” said ResLife staff member Brandon Buehring. “We’re not immune to this.”
The message was erased before Public Safety officers arrived at Clark to photograph the evidence. The perpetrator has not yet been determined. In an e-mail sent to all students on campus, Dean of the College Maria Cruz-Saco stated that the investigation of this incident has revealed that other biased graffiti was discovered In Clark earlier this year, but not reported. Cruz-Saco was contacted for elaboration, but did not respond before press time. According to an anonymous source with intimate awareness of the incident, the graffiti was not written by a Wesleyan student, but rather “by people who got into the building.” Other sources said there was no way to tell if the perpetrator was a student or a non-University person. ResLife staff members in Clark were barred from publicly discussing the Feb. 17 incident.
“We are under really clear and stern instructions by ResLife and the administration in general not to speak with anyone,” said one Clark RA in a statement echoed by multiple RAs.
Buering said that the silence policy was enacted to protect the privacy of the RAs.
“They’re not spokespeople for a cause, and this shouldn’t consume their careers here,” Buehring said.
One Clark RA thought that the decision to ask RAs not to talk about the issue was correct.
“There’s a lot of interoffice flurry going on, higher up than me, and they’re trying to protect everyone involved,” the RA said. “It’s not right for me to talk until [ResLife has] a cohesive plan on what to do.”
Other students weren’t sure that ResLife had properly handled the situation.
“I feel like it’s been glossed over and not really handled the way it should have been,” said one RA.
Clark experienced a similar instance during the last academic year, when bias-related slander was written on a dry-erase board. ResLife does not suspect a connection between the two incidents.
According to Buehring, any reputation that Clark has gained as the greatest target for such incidents is false.
“Clark gets a bad rap, a lot of unwarranted attention because of peoples’ perceptions of its history,” Buehring said. “There are perceptions on campus that Clark is more prone to this type of incident. But this is not just a Clark problem, it’s a campus problem.”
This year, ResLife extended the protocol for hate or bias-related incidents to include specifications for those incidents that take place in residential halls. The protocol instructs ResLife staff members to support and advise victims, to work closely with Public Safety and the hall’s Area Coordinator to document the incident, and to address the bias issues with the hall community.
“Everyone in student services is dedicated to creating a [uniform] response and a unified voice that this type of behavior is absolutely unacceptable, instead of being reactive every time [it occurs],” Buehring said.
After the Feb. 17 incident, ResLife held hall meetings with Clark residents and re-educated both residents and Resident Advisors about how to prevent and respond to hate or bias-related incidents.
“I’m very proud of the work that the staff has done this year to support residents and dialogues about systems of oppression,” Buehring said.
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