Department of Public Safety officers investigating a suspected drug deal stopped and questioned three black high-school students as they walked through campus Thursday morning, an incident that has left administrators and students questioning the level of racial tolerance on campus.
Students and faculty who work with diversity issues said they don’t accuse the department of racial profiling, but many said what happened Thursday was an act of discrimination that must be addressed immediately.
According to DPS Director Tom Fitzpatrick, a campus employee in Carson Hall called DPS at 10:15 a.m. Thursday to report three students wearing “urban clothes” who had made a drug deal.
Three DPS officers found the three students, who matched the physical and clothing descriptions, five minutes later in the EMU, questioned them outside the EMU Fishbowl and released them without giving a citation.
“We contacted them based on their clothing,” Fitzpatrick said.
The students were among about 600 minority high-school seniors who were on campus for Gateway to the Future, a program that has worked to recruit a more diverse student body to the University for more than 15 years.
But this year, the program is part of University President Dave Frohnmayer’s top goal of improving diversity on campus.
“I just can’t fathom it,” said Jamila Singleton, a student volunteer for Gateway who witnessed the incident. “This isn’t OK to be happening on our campus.”
Singleton added that the students had free time to explore the campus when the incident happened.
The Carson Hall lobby is unlocked and open to the public, unlike other residence halls that require a key for entry.
One of the students stopped, Michael Hill, 17, said he and his friends were not dealing drugs and, regardless of the circumstances, he just wants to forget about his encounter with campus security.
“The discrimination has to stop,” he said.
ASUO President Jay Breslow, who was a student director in the Multicultural Center before being elected last spring, said he is furious about what happened.
“It’s not DPS racial profiling, but it’s definitely still a racist incident,” Breslow said. “It’s a horrible thing to have happen.”
A report about the incident has been filed with the Bias Response Team, a group of students and administrators who advocate for victims of racism and educate the campus community about the case.
Fitzpatrick, who met with members of the response team Thursday afternoon, said DPS has a duty to stop people if they match the physical and clothing descriptions of suspects.
“We simply identified the folks, talked to them, thanked them for their cooperation and wished them well,” he said. “We had a relatively positive contact.”
Mark Tracy, assistant dean for diversity programs at the University and a member of the response team, said he wants to deal with the aftermath of the incident instead of placing blame, especially on DPS.
“DPS did what they were supposed to do,” he said. “We need to decide how we are going to deal with it as a University.”
Frohnmayer released a brief statement late Thursday afternoon to say he discussed the situation with Fitzpatrick, members of the response team and others.
The three students received letters from Fitzpatrick that explained what happened and why — but did not include an apology — and Tracy went to Gateway sessions in the afternoon to discuss what happened and the resources available on campus for students who are victims of bias or racism.
Breslow said the biggest disappointment Thursday was the timing of the incident with the recruitment program.
“Bottom line — it was a racist incident,” he said. “It happens every day, but we happened to catch this one.”