A recent string of bias-related incidents across the Syracuse University campus is creating discussion about where a joke ends and a hate crime begins.
The approximately 25 bias incidents that have already occurred this semester are being handled by a 2-year-old protocol that forces the university to examine how it should respond when it is unclear if an offensive message was meant to be hurtful or funny.
Bias incidents,as defined by the Division of Student Affairs' Team Against Bias, is any "behavior which constitutes an expression of hostility against the person or property of another because of the targeted person's race, religion, sexual orientation ..."
The largest number of bias incidents in residence halls result from students leaving offensive messages on dry-erase boards attached to dorm room doors, according to Public Safety reports. These messages, whether left as a joke or with malicious intent, are handled with the same protocol.
According to the Division of Student Affairs, residence hall staff must inform Public Safety in the event of a bias-related incident. Public Safety then documents the details of the incident and takes a picture of the message if it has not been erased. Next, the residence director speaks to the victim to see how much support he or she will need. If the victim needs additional resources, he or she is referred to Judicial Affairs, counseling or the Team Against Bias.
This is the second year of the university's strict enforcement of bias incidents, but the problems persist.
Sophomore advertising and psychology major Laura Vanison, a resident in Lawrinson Residence Hall, was the victim of an incident the second day of school. Her roommate from last year came to visit when Vanison wasn't there and left a message with offensive language on her dry-erase board.
"I didn't think it was so bad," Vanison said.
Her roommate replaced some of the letters of the obscenities with asterisks, but left the message on the board. They received a visit from Public Safety the following night.
"I thought it was ridiculous," Vanison said. "There are people running around doing drugs and they are checking dry-erase boards."
She and her roommate were called to speak with the resident director in Lawrinson, Joel McCarthy.
Vanison is happy with the way the residence hall staff responded and that they took the time to check up on things, but the visit from Public Safety made her feel intimidated.
"The way they made it sound, I was going to be in big trouble," Vanison said. "If we thought the whole thing was offensive, we would have erased it."
Amanda Kendall, a sophomore social work major and Vanison's former roommate, wrote the message on Vanison's board.
"It was obviously in a joking manner," Kendall said. "Public Safety definitely came and made them cry. It's absolutely ridiculous."
The university did not confront Kendall about the issue because Vanison did not give Public Safety Kendall's name.
David Stone, a senior in the College of Visual and Performing Arts and former Flint Residence Hall resident adviser, remembers a lot of situations with dry-erase boards that contained messages which could be considered bias incidents.
"I'd see it every time I did rounds," Stone said. "Most of the time, it's just as a joke, but it's still uncalled for."
Though the RA on Vanison's floor did not directly contact her, Public Safety later told Vanison that the RA called the report in.
"Our main goal is to make sure everyone is comfortable living here," McCarthy said about residence hall staff.
He believes that, even as a joke, bias remarks on dry-erase boards are something that should be documented. Anyone walking by could have seen and taken offense to the remarks.
In Public Safety's daily media log book, 17 of the 25 bias instances listed occurred in predominantly underclassmen dorms such as the Brewster-Boland and Flint residence halls.
An explanation for this could be that first-year students experience a change in environment and don't know that these are not acceptable behaviors, McCarthy said.
"People don't mean to be hateful," he said.
Juanita Perez Williams, director of Judicial Affairs and co-chairwoman of the steering subcommittee of the Team Against Bias, said the reason for the stricter attention is to get numbers about who is facing discrimination on campus. Of all the bias-related cases, about 70 percent are lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered related and 20 percent are racial, William said. Many cases of gender-related bias are not reported, she said.
Williams cites SU's heavy recruitment of a more diverse student base as another possible cause for bias incidents. With many students not used to such an environment, there will inevitably be conflicts.
As for the strict enforcement by Public Safety officers, Williams said they assume the culprits intended to hurt someone, and were not just playing a joke on or being offensive to someone they knew.
"Students do not truly understand how hurtful they can be," Williams said.
Williams does not feel that joking around is a good excuse to get away with discrimination. She believes that students need to learn what is acceptable in certain situations.
"When you use the [offensive] term, no matter how funny you meant it to be, you're using it as a weapon," she said.
Though the protocol still has some flaws, Joel McCarthy believes that trial and error will make the system work better.
"We have to wait and see how students feel about it," he said.
Be the first to comment on this article!