A recent report of a swastika drawn on a car parked on the campus of Dominican University in River Forest set off a wave of outrage among some African American and Hispanic students at the school. During an Oct. 27 protest on campus, attended by at least 100 people, student activists channeled that outrage into a series of demands made to administrators.
The students argued that Dominican President Donna Carroll and other top college officials have not responded quickly enough to acts of racial insensitivity or been tough enough on those who perpetrate incidents.
“We need more aggressive strategies! We need people to know that its not acceptable! The same things happen every semester,” shouted senior Ahriel Fuller, 21.
Fuller, a well-known campus leader, wore a long, black leather coat, knee-high black boots, black clothes and a black beret — her Black Panther-esque attire an extension of her belief that living black in the Chicago suburbs had radicalized her into regular activism, which she didn’t necessarily welcome.
She said she and other black and Hispanic students on campus are forced to defend themselves against a consistent barrage of what they called “micro-aggressions,” a term coined by psychologists in the 1970s that has experienced a recent surge in popularity.
Micro-aggressions, according to the online Merriam-Webster dictionary, are comments or actions that are “subtly and often unintentionally hostile or demeaning to a member of a minority or marginalized group.”
Minority students at last Thursday’s protest complained of professors who would make patronizing compliments on their articulation or recommend that students with afros “straighten their hair;” campus property defaced with racist symbols and writings, such as swastikas and the n-word; and frequent, unwarranted stops by River Forest police.
“I’ve been uncomfortable every year I’ve been at this institution,” said Khyeria Ferguson, 21, who, with Fuller, was among the leaders of the protest, which faculty and students believe may have been prompted by an incident that happened earlier this month.
On Oct. 10, River Forest police were notified about what appeared to be a discriminatory symbol drawn onto a car that was parked on campus.
“Someone seemed to have written something with their finger using the dust on the car,” said River Forest Deputy Police Chief James O’Shea during a phone interview on Monday.
O’Shea noted that the symbol in question appeared to be a swastika drawn backward. River Forest police, he added, took photos of the symbol and are still investigating the incident. He said his department is still waiting for more information on the case from the university. The photos, O’Shea noted, won’t be released until the case is resolved.
O’Shea said the Oct. 10 incident isn’t typical and police don’t often get reports regarding discriminatory, racially charged or racially biased writings or symbols.
When asked to comment on some minority students’ complaints about unwarranted stops by River Forest police, O’Shea said those complaints haven’t been brought directly to his department by students or university officials.
“There was an incident a couple of years ago,” O’Shea said, “[but] we have a zero tolerance approach for any of our officers acting inappropriately or biased. I’d welcome them to meet me personally to openly discuss that or any other issues.”
Sheila Radford-Hill, Dominican’s chief diversity officer, who was in attendance at the protest, said in a phone interview last Friday that the Oct. 10 incident took place in an area with poor surveillance and that a perpetrator hasn’t been identified.
That no one has yet to be punished for drawing the symbol, students argued, is par for the course at the university. They said too many acts of micro-aggression go either ignored or unpunished, a reality made possible by what they consider Dominican’s lack of institutional safeguards against subtle and not so subtle racism.
At the protest, the students made a series of demands they hope will immediately address the problem. They include mandatory cultural sensitivity training for faculty members; more aggressive hiring of minority faculty and administrators; an expansion of multicultural offerings in curricula across subjects, including art and literature; and tougher, swifter consequences for people who commit acts of micro-aggression.
For their part, some key faculty members and administrators said they’re working on responding to the students’ demands and offered their support to the protestors, but that they’re up against numerous challenges.
“From the university’s perspective, we want to root out institutional racism and individual racism,” said Radford-Hill, “but if you’re in a climate where racism or race is not talked about effectively, or issues aren’t addressed, then individuals may feel like it’s okay to do individual acts of racism.”
“I hear you and I experience this with you,” Trudi Goggin, the dean of students, told protestors. “If we knew how to catch perpetrators, we’d hold them accountable.”
“We hear your demands and we’re trying,” said literature professor Jane Hseu. “I hear your frustration and pain. Some of us are trying, but not enough of us. The majority is silent.”
“Investigations of any complaint or any allegation that a faculty member or student violated any of our codes of conduct or anti-discrimination clauses are fair, impartial, thorough and confidential,” said Radford-Hill. “Unfortunately, those take a little bit of time.”
She said that the few university personnel assigned to investigations are often juggling those cases with other responsibilities. In addition, sometimes investigations may be halted altogether until students come back from breaks.
Radford-Hill noted that “there have been instances in which professors who committed micro-aggressions have been sanctioned” and that sanctions “can range from having to undergo some type of professional development up to, and including, termination.”
She didn’t specify how frequent those aggressions, or sanctions, happen, but noted that administrators were taking steps to enhance cultural competency among faculty and staff by “redefining what is required to be a tenured professor, what is required for promotion and what is required to demonstrate teaching effectiveness.”
Those changes to how faculty members are evaluated, Radford-Hill said, are part of a more comprehensive overhaul to Dominican’s policies that has slowly been taking shape since Carroll implemented the President’s Advisory Council on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion last year.
Radford-Hill said that on Nov. 12, Carroll will meet with the council, which comprises at least a dozen students and alumni, to present a draft plan that would encourage each school in the university to develop a diversity plan; increase the retention and recruitment of black administrators, students, staff and students; include multiculturalism in the curriculum; and beef up the university’s cultural competency training, among other goals.
“We have seen an impact in admissions, hiring and programming,” said Carroll at the Oct. 27 protest. “That’s not enough and it’s not as fast as students want, but we’re working hard on this.”
Bella Bahhs, a 23-year-old activist and musician who graduated from Dominican in 2014 and is on Carroll’s advisory council, echoed some students’ complaints that the council wasn’t being sufficiently transparent and that Carroll herself wasn’t allied strongly enough with black students at the college.
The Dominican alumna specifically referenced a Black Lives Matter prayer service held earlier in the year, at which Carroll stated that “All Lives Matter.” When Bahhs confronted Carroll about the statement during the protest, the president noted that “it may be possible that there are multiple perspectives on that issue.”
“You are deflecting,” said Bahhs. “That is irresponsible of you and that is not good leadership. You are failing!”
Carroll then apologized both for the council’s lack of transparency and for the “All Lives Matter” statement, which, in an email response, she said she has made “a hundred times before, but one that was insensitive given the context.”
“This is a tender time for Dominican University, as it is on college campuses around the country,” Carroll noted in the email statement. “I am confident that we will work through our issues, and identify strategies to build a more equitable and inclusive community. The public scrutiny gives us more discipline.”
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