Anderson, MSA push to reinstate campus hate report
Jan. 23, 2007
The Hate Report, a statistical log of anonymously reported hate incidents, could return to campus after a seven-year absence.
"The Hate Report is at the top of our list of priorities," Missouri Students Association President-elect Rachel Anderson said. "It's moving right along."
The MSA Senate Operations Committee unanimously passed a resolution last October to resurrect the report, which would provide students with a private way to report instances of assault, harassment, prejudice and discrimination.
Multicultural Issues Committee Chairwoman Sameera Ali, who co-authored the original resolution with Executive Assistant for Diversity Affairs Kelley Robinson, said the committee has been pursuing The Hate Report aggressively.
The report was a key focus of Ali and Robinson's platform when they ran for MSA president and vice president last semester.
"Kelley and I promised during our campaign that we would keep the project running ourselves," Ali said. "We spent last semester making sure everything was running."
The MSA resolution states that the original Hate Report debuted in 1995 and ended in 1999 after its main advocate, Marcia Chatelain, graduated from MU.
Since then, Anderson said MU has lacked necessary tools to make some students feel comfortable and welcome on campus.
"I think it should be alarming to anyone to know that some students, regardless of race or sexual orientation, whatever the case may be, feel uncomfortable on our campus," Anderson said. "The Hate Report will help students feel more comfortable and serve as a mechanism to anonymously report incidents, such as sexual offenses, hate crimes and harassment and where MU students can show how the campus might not be as inviting."
Ali said the main purpose of the report will be to pinpoint the specifics of hate-related incidents on campus and to determine important patterns.
"Much of the purpose is to log all the trends — depending upon what crime we're talking about — where it's happening, who it's happening to and figuring out what we can do to control and fix these issues," Ali said.
The resolution calls for the Hate Report to be implemented by 2007.
The Women's Center, the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Resource Center and the Rape Education Office would be included if The Hate Report is implemented.
Ali said student involvement is key to making the new report successful.
"We're taking every step possible to make sure it does happen," Ali said.
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