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Missing the mark

A recent Blade editorial exposes issues but suggests incorrect solutions

The Independent Collegian

Editorial

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After the announcement made by University of Toledo President Sharon Gaber regarding the results of the investigation into an off-campus incident that occurred Jan. 24, The Blade published an editorial criticizing her choice of sanctions for the students who violated the Student Code of Conduct. They also offered their opinion about what they believe the sanctions should have been.
We think The Blade raised a valid point about the issue of racism on our campus, but we strongly disagree with the harsher punishment they suggested. We believe there was not enough evidence to deem the assault racially motivated, unlike what The Blade strongly suggests. We place our confidence in, and stand behind, Gaber on the punishments prescribed for the students based on the information we gathered.
Despite our disagreement with The Blade’s conclusion, we thought that they raised a valuable point on the conversation about race taking place — or rather, the lack of conversation. Although she came out strongly condemning racism, Gaber has since skirted around the issue of race when it comes to this incident and has not directly addressed that problem through action. Her response to the incident’s face value was thoughtful and thorough. However, to truly address the underlying issue, she needs to take the extra step and address it head-on.
When the incident initially took place, Gaber pointed out that UT’s diversity forums were a way to talk about diversity and race. At the time, we wrote an editorial praising her for being proactive and having open discussions on race and racism, one that we still stand by. But since she has taken no further action in response to the allegations of racial slurs, we feel the issue of racism on UT’s campus still needs to be addressed in a more direct way.
Gaber clearly stated that the diversity forums, survey and plan are not in response to the assault and that they were planned before the incident. Regardless of whether or not the assault was truly racially motivated, we feel this should have been an opportunity for Gaber to enact progressive change that demonstrates UT’s intolerance for insidious instances of racial prejudice.
We think mandating diversity and racial sensitivity training for all student organizations would be an effective way to prevent potential future issues while also educating students. Something as simple as training sends a message that racism is not acceptable on our campus. Gaber did not directly discuss the racial allegations in her email explaining the results of the Student Code of Conduct hearing, and she later stated she simply had no way of knowing whether the allegations of racial motivation were true. While she is technically correct, a statement like this does nothing to address the lingering fear that the incident truly was racially motivated, and that racism is a problem that continues to grow.
Even though we agree further action is needed, the suggestions The Blade made to fix the issue were out of place. They said the six students who were found in violation of the Student Code of Conduct should have been expelled for the year and given no credit for the course work they completed. We believe the idea of expelling students for an off-campus fight without clear evidence about key aspects of the fight represents an antiquated, outdated system of discipline. Gaber consulted the Student Code of Conduct in the decision for the punishment, which does not mandate expulsion for any of the offenses.
Additionally, although The Blade may not consider the sanctions severe enough, suspending social events and recruitment for an entire fraternity is iron-handed. Many college students take their fraternity involvement very seriously, putting hours of their time and dedicating much of their energy into their chosen organization. If we were forbidden to print papers for six months, it would have a heavy emotional impact on everyone on our staff, even though this is not our livelihood, because it is a place we take pride in and work hard to contribute to. As for the individual students, based on what we have been told about the conflicting accounts of what happened, the sanctions reasonably address what could be proven, and require the students to face consequences for their actions in a constructive way.
The Blade continued, saying instead of just being forced to do community service, the six students should have to serve 100 hours of community service “in a predominately African-American neighborhood.” To suggest that the community service should be served in an African-American neighborhood is offensive — The Blade assumed, without proof, that the sanctioned students are not African-American. The Blade treated African-American community involvement as punishment.
We understand that The Blade’s intention was to foster increased racial sensitivity in students, but this is not the way to do it. In addition to focusing once again on punishment rather than the potential for personal growth, this solution ignores the feelings and desires of the members of the community it would take place in. It assumes that these community members would desire to have these students who are accused of racially motivated assault come into neighborhood to do their service.
The simple truth is that The Blade, while identifying a real and difficult issue for Gaber to address, did not come up with an effective fix to the problem UT faces. The solutions they suggested would only continue to cultivate racial tensions felt on campus, while also punishing six students and an entire fraternity to a draconian magnitude.

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