Campus denounces hate

Discussion of racism and oppression - often perceived as a burden only for certain ethnic groups - flowed freely from students of all backgrounds Tuesday night as more than 250 people came together to address the university problem.

Campus organizations, including the Black Student Union and Community Roots, organized the speak-out rally in Cole Field House after more than 200 students voiced their concerns in a closed meeting Monday over the appearance of a noose outside the Nyumburu Cultural Center. Tuesday's event drew an outpouring of students, university officials and others who condemned the act and sought action from the entire student body.

In a show of support, campus leaders and officials including President Dan Mote, Nyumburu director Ronald Zeigler, Student Government Association President Andrew Friedson, Graduate Student Government President Laura Moore and many others delivered remarks.

"On the count of three everyone needs to yell," Friedson said, trying to animate the crowd. The crowd responded with deafening screams.

"You all officially participated in the speak out," he said.

Stefanie Brown, youth and college director for the national NAACP, told the crowd she was not happy to be in College Park because of the nature of the incident. Armed with fiery rhetoric, Brown said apathy is not an option.

"Honestly, I believe most of you will do nothing," Brown said. "If you leave here and do nothing, it will be like you hung the noose yourself."The event's organizers presented categories of discussion, such as policy, safety and education, to help direct the conversation toward a solution, said BSU president Altmann Pannell.

"We wanted to do things as a collective Terrapin body," Pannell said. "We have given people the option to speak out on different policy-oriented topics."

Sign-up sheets invited participants to air their views, though they were instructed to keep their comments to two or three minutes and to end on a positive note by proposing changes on the campus.

Yellow-shirted volunteers directed traffic into the field house, encouraging people to stand close to the stage on the field house floor. A line of students, arms crossed and shoulder-to-shoulder, stopped just in front of the platform as BSU officials addressed the group.

"This is bigger than a noose. It is bigger because we as a community know that something else is going on in the country," Pannell said. "It doesn't matter how big the knot was. It doesn't matter that is was hanging outside Nyumburu. ... What matters is that we are here today because we know there is something going on and people are not listening to us."

Individual students called for more diversity lessons in UNIV100 classes and improvements to safety measures. Students also said the confusion about the first appearance of the noose means the university population needs to be more educated about spotting and reporting hate crimes.

But the most resounding cry from students was for their classmates to "step out of the box" and attend the events of cultural groups different from their own background.

Although she said the recommendations were meaningful, junior sociology major and Kappa Alpha Theta member Catherine Trifiletti said some students genuinely are not accustomed to diversity. Stepping out of one's comfort zone takes courage many students may not possess, she said.

"It think it's feasible but it requires a majority of people. If one person does it maybe others will follow," Trifiletti said. "I think it's going to take a couple of pioneers. It's also going to take acceptance from the cultural groups to allow people coming in who want to learn about their culture."

hernandezdbk@gmail.com