JBHE: Latest News for 6/17/10

Race Relations on Campus Database

Each month JBHE Weekly Bulletin will publish a selection of racial incidents that have occurred on the campuses of colleges and universities. Here are this month’s incidents:

• A racial slur was written on the dry-erase board on the dormitory room door of an African-American student at San Diego State University. The next day, the university’s vice president for student affairs sent a letter to the campus community stating that such behavior is unacceptable and could result in the expulsion of the offender.

• A black professor at the Aurora campus of the University of Colorado School of Dental Medicine claims that he has been paid less than white colleagues and is subjected to racial snubs and jokes. The professor claims that the racial discrimination has persisted for 29 years. (Denver Post, 5-13-10)

• A white student at Bethel University in St. Paul, Minnesota, appeared in blackface during a skit in a student talent show. The student wore baggy pants and had dreadlocks and gold teeth. The student issued an apology to the campus community. (Minneapolis Star Tribune, 5-11-10)

• Two students at the College of the Atlantic in Bar Harbor, Maine, had their residence broken into while they were at class. Swastikas and ethnic slurs were found written inside the apartment. (Bangor Daily News, 5-22-10)

• The former football coach at historically black Savannah State University in Georgia claims in a federal lawsuit that he was forced to resign because he is white and is engaged to marry a black woman. The former coach said that he was told the mixed-race marriage would cause problems with alumni and members of the local community. (Associated Press, 5-28-10)