Campus racism is returning, officials say
By Aril it* Del- rain
and Cindy YVostrel
SihII Reporters
According to representatives from
numerous Nebraska colleges and
universities, racism is following a
national trend by re igniting and
becoming more visible on campuses.
At the Hilton Hotel May 24, nine
representatives met with the Ne
braska Advisory Committee (NAC)
to the l S. Commission on Civil
Bights m an open public lorum. len
V\( members asked the representa
tives to express what incidents ol
racial harassment and v iolence have
happened on lheir campuses and then
suggest possible solutions to increase
the reporting ol such incidents and
how to end attacks.
Cary Hill, NAC’chairperson, said
the lorum, "Bigotry and Violence on
Nebraska College Campuses,” was
designed lor the N A(' to get inlorma
tion and suggestions from the repre
sentatives
"We have no conclusions; at this
point, we arc merely a fact-finding
unit,’’ Hill said.
Elizabeth Millar, a graduate stu
dent at the University of Nebraska
l.mcoln, said she has been assaulted
because of her race.
Millar, who is black, said she was
hit over the heat! by a white woman
last tail in the Nebraska Union.
She said the woman, whom she
had never met, apparently was of
fended by a statement Millar made to
a newspaper reporter earlier in the
year.
Millar said she reported the inci
dent to the campus police, but the
woman was only cited.
I NL Vice Chancellor lor Student
Allairs James Griesen. who spoke
later in the day. said he had not heard
ol the incident.
Millar said she also has been ac
cused ol "stealing" another
woman's boyfriend and singled out in
a class lor being absent one day.
being a minority you have to
double think. Anything you do,
people will say Un-hull, that black
person did n llstolhc point that you
have to be more mature than they
nntoleiant people) are," Millar said
Mart.ee Metzger, mtrapersonal
v tolence uiuiiseloi to resilience halls
at l NE, said she has seen religious
intolerance in dorms this past holiday
season when Christian students co
erced Jew ish students to participate
m Christmas lestiv mes.
Metzger said racial and bigoted
incidents against gays and lesbians.
blacks and other minorities are be
coming more visible and violent.
Because of this, she said, students
she has talked to do not want to talk
about, let alone report, the incidents.
Jack Ka>, chairman and associate
prolessor ol speech communications
at UNI., said It e sees racial bigotrv in
the speeches Ins students give in
class.
But Jimmi Smith, director ol
Multi-Cultural Affairs at IJNI.. said
‘ there has been been a definite de
crease in physical violence on cam
pus.”
He said that compared to IdbK.
when physical attacks on racial mi
noritv students were at a high, racial
violence is almost nonexistent, he
said.
“(But) I think that there is lots ol
room for growth” in the treatment ol
minorities, Smith said.
“There is still suspicion that there
is something else operating than
merit in job decisions,” he said.
Dora Olivarez-Bahr, president ol
Developing Realistic Educational
Activities for Minorities (DREAM),
said racism is so subtle that it’s diffi
cult for students to identify it. If they
can detect it, they often don’t know
where to report it, she said.
Ascension Hernandez, civil rights
analyst for the central regional divi
sion of the U.S. Commission on Civil
R ights, said the N AC needed to know
if the universities had places for stu
dents to report incidents ol racial
violence or harassment.
All, except Griesen, could not
name a specific place and person to
contact to report the incidents.
Griesen said that at UNI. students
should talk first to the class instruc
tor. If that fails, they should file a
complaint with Brad Munn, affirma
tive action officer, he.said.
Donald Burger, conciliation so
cialist for the Community Relations
Service (C’RS) of the U.S. Depart
ment of Justice, said later in a tele
phone interview that there isn't a
place for Nebraskans to report inci
dents ol discrimination.
Burger said cases from Nebraska
are usually reported directly to CRS
bv students, college officials or po
lice duels.
At the open forum. Burger said his
organization monitors crimes moti
vated bv the victim's race, color or
national origin.
He said that ol the racially
motivated incidents that have hap
pened m the last three years in a four
state region ol Kansas, Missouri,
Iowa and Nebraska, only three took
place m Nebraska.
student phone prejix changes
I' rum staff reports
Students living on the University
of Nebraska-1.incoln campus have
new phone prefixes.
The new prefix was changed from
472 to 436. All residence halls and
most fraternity and sorority members
now have 436 prefixes.
According to the UNL Telecom
munications Center, the university
made the change because they were
running out of possible 7-digit com
binations beginning with 472.
Administrative offices will con
tinue to use the 472 prefix. The prefix
switch cost nothing, according to
telecommunications.
Burger said possible Masons for a
lower reported number of eases in
Nebraska could be the low number ol
minorities m the stale, lack of follow
through b> the police, little encour
agement lor students to report mci
dents or little racial tension m Ne
braska.
CKS will ti) to establish several
"control campuses" at several Ne
braska campuses, liurger said. CKS
will compare the number ol racially
biased acts at these institutions with
schools in Iowa, Kansas and Mis
souri, he said
Kay suggested that faculty and
students develop a "communicative
dimension" about racism.
"We need to know how to com
municate about racism," Kay said.
According to Kay, people possess
an ‘ ostrich mentality" in which they
rinn'l n'lmri r:iri:il vinli'nn*
they (ear being found out by those
w hom they report.
Students and faculty, he said, must
learn to talk about racial bigotry and
learn how to deal with ihe growing
problem. Students also must be en
couraged to report acts of racial vio
lence, he said,
i
Gricsen said he wants to make the
UNI. stall more sensitive to the frus
trations of minorities.
Minority and non-minority stu
dents may perceive an action differ
ently, he said. Faculty and students
who aren’t minorities must be aware
ol possible minority perception, he
said.
“My own belief is . . . there is a
very low incidence ol discernible
racism (at UNU),” he said.
Hernandez said that even though
the commission invited many Ne
braska universities and colleges to
the forum, only UNU, the University
ol Nebraska-Omaha and Metropoli
tan Community Colleges of Omaha
were able to send representatives to
the forum.
Hernando/ said itii-r»' vi>r-d
reasons why some inslitulions wcrc
n i represented. Some were unable to
I md someone to represent the institu
tion alter school was out, no incidents
of tension or v iolence had been re
ported on their campuses or publicly
presenting information was not pos
sible at the time.
Hill said the information pre
sented at the forum was tape recorded
anil is being written up into a report
by the commission's central regional
office located m Kansas City, Mo.
i he report is due to come out in ^0 to
60 days.
The report then w ill he returned to
the committee for review and pos
sible lollinv-up interviews with the
presenters, 11 Ml said.
After that, the report, along with
two others on the same topic from
Missouri and Kansas, will be sent to
the I S. commission for further re
view . he said.
"We wanted to pick a topic that
was similar toother states’ so that we
could compare (our information)
with theirs," Hill said.
ii aiso nas more 01 an impact n
(the information iconics from several
sources," he said.
Hill said u is difficult to say that
racism in Nebraska is a big "prob
lem." He said many people have
their own perceptions of how to de
fine the word problem.
"As people become more equal in
numbers and having the same oppor
tunities, then people that have under
lying prejudices . . . become more
visible," Hill said.