BSU resigns, Dean of Students hosts campus expression presentation
The Black Student Union executive board resigned March 18, citing burnout and a lack of cooperation with administrators, one of whom hosted a campus expression event that clarified the university’s protocol on addressing hate speech.
After scheduling five separate events for Black History Month, the Black Student Union (BSU) was forced to cancel its final one — a showcase intended to highlight Black excellence and talent on campus — due to a lack of participation. In an opinion piece submitted to The Panther, former BSU President Ramya Sinha wrote that it wasn’t the first time the student organization had seen a less-than-desired turnout.
“The attendance from the Black community was not great. One person showed up to our Zoom cooking event and none of the Black male students at Chapman showed up to a single meeting the entire month,” Sinha wrote in her opinion. “This really led us to ask the question: Why are we doing all this work when our community doesn't even want to show up?”
Due to frustration and exhaustion, BSU’s executive board resigned March 18 after considering the imbalance between the board members' efforts and the lack of engagement they received from the community. Noting how tirelessly the student organization worked to create a 12-point action plan for the university to confront and resolve Black student concerns, Sinha said she was disheartened by the administration’s “apathetic responses.”
Dean of Students Jerry Price told The Panther he is “terribly disappointed” that the university was not able to collaborate further with the student organization. He indicated that the perception of a disjointed relationship could be attributed to a misalignment of expectations for what actions are and aren’t appropriate for the university.
“It’s beyond discouraging to me that they believe we have not been supportive of them … I believe that there were multiple invitations to try to work it out, but for whatever reason, those were unsuccessful,” Price said. “I’m glad for them if the weight of what they were doing was overwhelming them (and is now lifted). With any student in this position, I would say, ‘Go take care of yourself first.’”
The Black Student Union promotes 12 action items that are aimed at fostering a more inclusive campus. Graphic by HARRY LADA, Art Director.
The Student Government Association (SGA) developed a dozen different task forces in the fall semester that aimed to promote and actualize BSU’s calls for reform. Since the 2020-2021 academic year began, steps taken to improve an inclusive campus environment have included mandatory diversity training for first-year students, $500,000 put toward hiring Black faculty, Africana Studies becoming an official minor, Ethnic Studies becoming an official cluster, the hiring of a case manager and the formation of a search committee to hire a vice president of diversity, equity and inclusion.
“BSU is an enormously important club to us, because the representation for Black students on campus is so small that a healthy, strong BSU is vital. Not only that, but for us to serve students well, we have to hear from them how their experience is going,” Price said. “As soon as there is a new group, we are going to reach out to them and hope to resume conversations and discussions.”
BSU elections to replace the now-empty executive board seats are tentatively slated for the end of April to the beginning of May. The student organization will send out an email in April that clarifies each position description. Receiving over 900 likes in its final social media post as the 2020-2021 executive board, the group detailed its fatigue from this academic year.
Dean of Students Jerry Price speaks on university protocol regarding hate speech
At the beginning of the fall semester, in one of its most attended events, the Black Student Union hosted an Aug. 29 protest on the steps of Memorial Hall. Over 100 attendees called for the Chapman administration to recognize and condemn the racism they argued was demonstrated by former professor John Eastman. Price clarified the university’s protocol to addressing hate speech in a March 17 campus expression event.
Dean of Students Jerry Price has hosted forums for students to express their thoughts in an in-person setting. Above, Price hosts a community forum April 16, 2019, where student attendees called for the removal of a "The Birth of a Nation" movie poster that used to be on display in the Marion Knott Studios. Panther Archives
The event addressed why universities permit speech that can be perceived as racist or offensive. As a university is an educational entity that strives to maintain its goal of widening ideological perspectives on campus, Price asserted it would go against an educational institution’s core beliefs to restrict academic freedom of expression. The American Association of University Professors similarly claims that freedom of expression is “essential” to not only transmit knowledge, but to also debate and expand upon it to form new schools of thought.
“If our job is to try to be a catalyst for people considering all these ideas and debating and processing themselves, once we weigh in and say, ‘This idea is good’ and ‘This idea is bad,’ that can really have a chilling effect,” Price said. “There’s certainly times in which we should do that, but I believe those are many fewer than students believe.”
Hate speech alone is not prohibited expression. However, instances in which speech can be prohibited include inciting physical threats, sexual or non-sexual harassment and disruption — which is defined in the Student Code of Conduct as “Any activity that interferes with the normal operation of the University or infringes on the safety of other members of the University community.”
Yet, even if disciplinary action is taken, investigation processes are usually not made public because of privacy laws. Price recommends students respond to offensive expression by formulating counter expression.
“(Hate speech) is ugly, it’s horrible, but it is not a different category of speech when it comes to what is prohibited expression by law,” Price said at the March 17 presentation. “But I have a great deal of interest in protecting the rights of students to decide for themselves what they want to hear and what they don’t and which ideas they’d like to embrace.”
“(Hate speech) is ugly, it’s horrible, but it is not a different category of speech when it comes to what is prohibited expression by law ... But I have a great deal of interest in protecting the rights of students to decide for themselves what they want to hear and what they don’t and which ideas they’d like to embrace.”
SGA organized a campus expression task force in October 2020 to suggest various actions the university can employ to respond to racist and offensive behavior. Made up of six Chapman organizations, from political to multicultural clubs, the task force produced four main recommendations that are further broken up by specific measures. These findings will be available to the public once a Chapman University website page that compiles all relevant information is created.
“A big part of the goal is educating people on this topic. People have had a very hostile outlook on freedom of expression on college campuses,” said Philip Goodrich, SGA president. “I think there’s a lack of understanding about the complexities of the topic … With Dean Price’s presentation, with the website and with different organizations taking part and bringing back to their clubs and organizations, I’m hoping (our goal) can be accomplished.”