System to monitor hate crimes
Nov. 27, 2007
A bias incident reporting system should be on the MU Web site some time this week, Equity Office Manager Noel English said.
The system is modeled after the Hate Report, which was a method of reporting hate crimes on campus. The original Hate Report was a statistical log of anonymously reported hate crimes. It was implemented in 1996 but ended in 1999 when one of its main proponents, Marcia Chatelain, graduated.
This bias reporting system would be a Web site that collects data about hate crimes on the MU campus, and the information would go to the Equity Office.
"My interest is making sure that people can report problems," English said. "Anything that helps improve communication helps."
English said the first part of the plan involves making sure students know how to report hate crimes. The second part will be to get approval from the Campus Institutional Review Board to release the information to the Missouri Students Association.
"I'm optimistic it's going to happen really soon," MSA Senate Speaker Jonathan Mays said.
MSA Senate passed a bill in October 2006 that called for the executive branch to implement a bias reporting system. Mays said the plan is to eventually publish a new hate report based on the findings from the Web site.
English said MU gets a relatively small number of complaints about hate crimes.
"It scares me that things could be going on that we're not addressing that affect the climate, that affects retention," she said. "I would hope there's no problems, but I'm not naive enough to believe that."
Junior Kelley Robinson, who co-authored the bill, said when MSA gets the results from the Web site, they will work on increasing awareness about the issues and safety.
She said minority students' experiences at MU are generally less positive than those of majority students.
Chancellor Brady Deaton, Student Affairs Vice Chancellor Cathy Scroggs and Chief Diversity Officer Roger Worthington said at a Four Front meeting that they would support English and the Equity Office in any way necessary.
Mays said MSA plans to hold the administration to that promise with the bias report.
"I think we look at safety on campus in a very limited scope," Robinson said. "Many students' experiences are not conducive to learning. We need to look at ways to make it more conducive to learning."
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