The task force inspecting the University of Oregon Bias Education Response Team plans to investigate the team’s historical trends, evolution of principles have changed, storage and access to records, and nature of team interventions. The task force shared its goals at the UO Senate meeting on Wednesday, after assembling for the first time on Sept 21.
The UO BERT was founded after an incident in 1999, when a student made racist remarks that led to a protest and the arrest of 31 students. The UO started a “discrimination response team” to deal with hate speech.
“When bias was spoken about in the original charter, it looked more like a hate crime,” said Chris Chavez, co-chair of the BERT and UO advertising assistant professor.
Since 1999, the scope and direction of the BERT have changed, and Chavez says he hopes to find out how. In June, UO announced the creation of the task force, which is composed of seven members, including students, faculty and staff.
Chavez wants to contact other universities and collaborate on methods of balancing free speech and reporting bias.
The University of Iowa dissolved its bias response team in August, and the University of Chicago’s dean of students sent a letter to freshmen that attacked “trigger warnings” and “intellectual safe spaces.” Chavez said he was interested in the debates that followed the comments in letter.
The use of bias response teams is an increasing trend on college campuses, despite what the University of Chicago and others argue about its chilling effect on on free speech. The UO is one of the first schools to assess its impact with a specific team.
Chavez said the task force is inspecting the BERT “almost like scholars.” He pressed the importance of a dispassionate approach.
“When we talk about it, I think we’re all very sensitive to this issue and ensuring that we don’t cut off avenues for students to report bias,” he said.
Chavez said the BERT is welcoming and cooperative to the task force. Quantrell Willis, head of the BERT, said he wants to be as transparent as possible in a July interview with the Emerald.
“This is not something we’re trying to hide,” Willis said.
Leaders from the two parties met on Aug. 15, according to notes from the UO Senate website.
The notes also state there are “no specific guidelines for when accused individuals are contacted,” something that the newly formed task force will reassess. Until now, the Bias Response Team released only two years of heavily redacted reports, leaving no information to identify individuals.
The task force meets again in two weeks, but there is no definite date. The team will present a report to the UO Senate in the beginning of winter term, Chavez said. The report will be a “snapshot” of the BERT and a list of recommended actions, although the specific actions have yet to by established by Chavez and the task force.