This Sunday, President Marc Parlange sent an email to all members of the University of Rhode Island community addressing a racist direct message sent from a URI student to Miami Dolphins player Emmanuel Ogbah.
“I write tonight to underscore for every member of our community that the University of Rhode Island is an institution committed to rejecting racism in all its forms,” Parlange wrote.
The student in question sent Ogbah a message over Instagram following the Dolphins’ loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars on Sunday morning.
Both Associate Vice President and Chief Diversity Officer Mary Grace Almandrez and Dave Lavallee, URI’s assistant director of external relations and communications, said that the University became aware of the post on Sunday afternoon and addressed it as quickly as possible.
The University is currently going through the student conduct process to address this case, according to Lavallee. Due to legal restrictions, the University cannot release the name of the student. However, according to the University website, the student is a graduate student and teaching assistant in the College of the Environment and Life Sciences.
Almandrez said that University administrators have been in contact with groups at the Multicultural Student Services Center (MSSC) to assess how they will deal with this incident going forward.
“We want students to know when these kinds of incidents happen— we take them seriously,” Almandrez said. “Issues of accountability, as well as understanding the seriousness of this, is something that we are paying attention to and hear, and we need to send a message that that kind of behavior is not at all reflective of our values and that we care deeply about the safety and well being of all of our students.”
Angelica Tyson, the cultural affairs committee chair of the Student Senate, was pleased with the University’s quick response but hopes to see action and accountability going forward.
“I would like to first apologize to all those affected by the racist hate speech made by a fellow student at URI,” Tyson said. “Until the student who made the social media post is faced with consequences and repercussions, the University will in turn indirectly support racism. We who are affected by racism do not seek an apology, but rather institutional change. If the University does not give appropriate punishment(s) for those who commit racist acts, then I, alongside other minorities, will believe URI does not value our voices, cultures and our being.”
Almandrez hopes that by addressing the issue and having accountability they will not only prevent events like these in the future, but also allow the community to grow. They hope this will empower multicultural groups and minority communities at URI.
“Academic Affairs created this agenda for change to focus on anti-Black racism,” Almandrez said. “We have new leadership at the Multicultural Student Services Center, for instance, and so part of this is to acknowledge that, regardless of what the circumstances are, this kind of incident causes harm. We need to really be responsive to what our students’ needs are, and to be very vocal and unapologetic in our commitment to social justice.”
The MSSC is important in situations like this, according to Almandrez, as they provide students with development opportunities and racial sensitivity training. She said that anti-racist resources are something URI wants to integrate into programs as early as orientation, and that residential assistants (RAs), resident academic mentors (RAMs) and orientation leaders need the information to peers towards professionals who can further help.
The University wants to emphasize to all community members that resources are available in these circumstances.
“At the bottom of the email [sent out by Parlange], you can see all of the resources we listed for folks to reach out if they need to,” Lavallee said. “And we also included a link to the Employee Assistance Program. We’re certainly very concerned about our students because they are younger and there are certain pressures on them that are different than what exists for employees and seasoned professionals here at the institution, however, these kinds of things affect all of us, and so we wanted to make sure we didn’t overlook any of our staff and faculty who could also be affected by this.”
Some of the resources available to students and employees include the Dean of Students Office, the MSSC and the Psychological Counseling Center.
These comments made by the student comes after the recent release of URI’s campus climate survey. Of the 4,555 surveys returned by students, only 69 percent said they felt “very comfortable” with the overall climate at URI.
Almandrez said that while this number is “pretty good,” certain communities, such as students of color, don’t feel like they belong at URI.
Almandrez encouraged all members of the community to be fully transparent towards the administration about how they are feeling about the campus climate after these events, as well as in general.
“One of the lessons that we learned from implementing the Campus Climate Survey was that there are some people in the community who were a little bit nervous about being fully honest in their survey,” Almandrez said. “Some were concerned that if they reported something it may not actually be taken seriously. We want to emphasize that when a student experiences harm or observes questionable behavior that is hurtful or discriminatory to please be in contact with a non-bias resource team such as a mentor or advisor to report this. We want the University, for all of our students, to just be students in all of who they are and all of their passions and interests with all identities.”