Roughly 100 students and community members rallied Wednesday afternoon at the Heart of Campus to voice their frustrations with the University administration, which they said failed to address their demands for increasing diversity and racial tolerance on campus.
The rally started at East 13th Avenue and University Street one hour before members of the University Senate gathered in 150 Columbia to vote on the Diversity Plan, which aims to assist in giving each school, college and administrative unit at the University, as well as the ASUO Executive, a plan for future diversity initiatives and efforts.
Rally organizers said they were not opposed to the plan, just certain oversights they saw in it. They presented four demands intended to address these oversights. Organizers criticized the University administration for failing to meet their demands in a timely manner.
The demands, intended to better the campus climate in terms of diversity and racial tolerance, include staffing the Bias Response Team with full-time employees, departmentalizing interdisciplinary studies such as ethnic studies and women and gender studies, and hiring new staff to advocate diversity and support for students in the residence halls, according to the organizers.
Student demonstrators rallied May 16 in front of Johnson Hall to protest what they called a “hostile and unsafe” campus. Student representatives also met Monday with Mike Eyster, interim vice president for student affairs and director of student housing, and Dave Hubin, executive assistant to the president, to explain their demands. University President Dave Frohnmayer and Eyster both responded to the meeting by saying they were interested in addressing the issues and working with students, but the seven students at the meeting said Frohnmayer and Eyster failed to meet their demands.
Organizer Jael Anker-Lagos said the purpose of the rally was to emphasize that student input was not adequately included in the diversity plan.
At the rally, supporters took turns talking about their experiences with discrimination on campus and reading discrimination complaints that had been filed by students.
Junior family and human services major Maisie Davis, who is black, said she had been assaulted three times on campus this year, including a death threat from a group of four white students. She said she was afraid to walk around campus by herself.
“I do not feel safe on this campus,” Davis said. “I shouldn’t have to do this, because I paid to come here and because I’m sick and tired of it.”
About 20 minutes before the University Senate meeting began, demonstrators gathered near the entrance to 150 Columbia and chanted various slogans, such as “meet our demands, this is not our plan” as Senate members entered the building.
Anker-Lagos said the University Senate approval of the diversity plan was a step in the right direction, and that the students are planning to meet with University administrators in the future.
During the University Senate meeting, rally demonstrators showed their support of the diversity plan by clapping for its supporters and hissing at its opponents. In the end, the University Senate voted to approve the plan 32-6.
Although student voices weren’t included in the creation of the diversity plan, Anker-Lagos said, she hopes the four student demands will be added into it.