Town hall meeting responds to BCC tampering

The meeting sought to create dialogue about diversity issues on campus.

By Luke Udstuen

Published March 2, 2010

The Legion of Black Collegians hosted a town hall meeting Monday night at the Gaines/Oldham Black Culture Center in response to the cotton strewn in front of the center Friday.

Deputy Chancellor Michael Middleton explained how the cotton used in the crime represented an act of violence — not necessarily physical violence but symbolic violence.

"While this wasn't done to anyone specifically, it wasn't even done to the facility itself, it undid progress that has been made at the University of Missouri-Columbia," Middleton said.

Middleton referenced Lloyd Gaines, the black student who won a Supreme Court case in 1938 to gain entry into the MU School of Law and disappeared the following year.

"It undid the progress we have made, that we have fought for, the progress that Lloyd Gaines died for," Middleton said.

The MU Police Department is classifying the crime as tampering, MUPD Capt. Brian Weimer said.

"It is being investigated as a crime," Weimer said. "People are calling it vandalism, but the charge is tampering." MUPD offers a Crime Stoppers reward of up to $1,500 for information about the crime, Weimer said.

"If anyone knows anything, they need to call us because this is affecting our whole community," Weimer said.

Although many students at the town hall meeting referred to the crime as a hate crime, the incident might not qualify as one, according to legal classifications.

"I personally would call it a hate crime," MUPD Chief Jack Watring said. "We've looked at it several times over the last couple of days, over the weekend and today."

Watring said the incident could be called a hate crime in the police reports but might not be counted as one statistically.

MUPD has accessed nearby security cameras, such as those on the Virginia Avenue Garage and the Life Sciences Center. Watring said a camera on the Student Recreation Complex might indicate in which direction the suspects ran. MUPD believes the two people ran between Wolpers and Johnston residence halls toward the recreation center, Watring said.

A witness saw two people running from the area around the time of the event.

MUPD is also retrieving swipe card information from residence halls to examine those who left or entered halls around the time of the event, Watring said.

In addition to those efforts on campus, MUPD has also contacted local retail outlets, such as Walmart, Walgreens and Mizzou Market.

Watring said MUPD has also retrieved video from Mizzou Market.

"We're reviewing those tapes there," Watring said. "There is a camera there all the time. We think we may have a fairly good lead there that was provided to us."

Last year, Faculty Council created a task force to address general education requirements regarding diversity, Faculty Council Chairwoman Leona Rubin said.

"The first item on that agenda was to address the need for a diversity course on campus," Rubin said.

Rubin will address the council Thursday with a resolution stating faculty in all courses would consider tolerance of all topics their primary concern, Rubin said.

Graduate assistant Jennifer Correa addressed the e-mail Chancellor Brady Deaton sent to students and staff regarding the BCC vandalism last Friday.

"In sociology, we teach about diversity," Correa said. "Nowhere in that e-mail was anything about race or racism."

Chief Diversity Officer Roger Worthington said as an administrator, he's found a more effective way to approach an issue is working collaboratively with faculty.

"We can continue to improve the curriculum by identifying courses that don't include diversity when they should," Worthington said.

Outside the BCC on Friday, as students discovered the vandalism outside the center, reactions ranged from laughter to disbelief and to tears.

"This isn't just about the BCC,” freshman Ashley Hatcher said. “Racism has never gone anywhere. I don't even have the words to explain how I feel right now. I'm fighting back tears. This is ridiculous."

LBC President Anthony Martin said racism occurs in a more frequent but often unnoticed basis.

"This was just such a blatant outright act of racism that it couldn't go unheard," Martin said. "But there are issues that happen every day on campus that are racism under the table. They need to be publicized just as much as this. LBC's stance on this and what we're going to do is to make sure that happens from now on."

Freshman Gabriel Tyler said the incident needed to happen in order to spark the desire for change.

"Because I feel a lot of times we are acquiescent about certain events, and we just say, 'Oh, we're not going to do something about it,' " Tyler said.

Deaton gave closing remarks at the town hall meeting.

"Fear has no place in a citadel of learning," Deaton said. "We are happy to see the community of Columbia work with us to eradicate these acts, knowing we will never perfect the human condition."