Following four racial slurs found on Eastern Michigan University’s campus, four students have been sanctioned by EMU’s Office of Student Conduct and Community Standards for their involvement in the Student Center protest in early November.
Since late September, several racial slurs have been discovered including: “KKK, Go Home N*****rs” was spray painted on King Hall; “Leave N*****rs" was spray painted on Ford Hall; “N*****rs” spray painted in the elevator of Hoyt Residence Hall; “N*****rs” was spray painted in the stairwell of Wise Residence Hall.
In response to these incidents, over 200 students came together and marched from dorm hall to dorm hall to gather their overnight necessities, then marched to the Student Center shortly after midnight, Nov. 2.
The Student Center closed at 1 a.m. and following the closing of the building, the students locked arms as EMU Public Safety and Associate Vice President Calvin Phillips asked them to leave, stating the students were in violation of student conduct and Michigan law. Half of the 200 students left as a result.
Officers video recorded the students who stayed and eventually let the students be. The students proceeded to have a peaceful sit-in. Students did homework, danced, performed poetry and congregated together in several other ways.
Each student called before the conduct office was emailed individually for separate meetings. Following the students being called before the Office of Student Conduct and Community Standards EMU Student Body President Tanasia Morton issued a statement, and faculty began a petition that was signed by over 2,000 people and called for the President Smith to end the persecution of Eastern Michigan University Student Protesters.
“There can be no doubt that there was reasonable and just cause for these peaceful protests. When unjust acts occur, it is the responsibility of students to stand up against those acts and formulate a feasible plan of action to combat them,” said Morton.
Faculty began a petition calling for the end of the persecution of the student protesters. Faculty Senate President Judith Kullberg voiced her disagreement with how the students are being handled.
Although the four students have not made their sanctions public, the students were issued sanctions on Nov. 16. The students have been processed on a system, so any prior conduct violations were taken into account by the conduct office.
“Due to federal privacy laws, the University does not discuss individual cases involving students, and as such we cannot provide any further detail on the outcome of any cases,” said Geoffrey Larcom, EMU Executive Director of Media Relations.
Following the sanctions of the four students, the American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan issued a letter addressed to President Smith calling for an immediate dropping of the charges against the students.
ACLU is a national union that exists to preserve civil liberties, and currently has over 500 thousand active members. The union has directed its attention to EMU because of its belief that disciplinary action should not have been taken against the students.
“The university has not seen fit to correct its error by terminating the disciplinary process, it is necessary for the ACLU of Michigan to explain to university officials why it must discontinue what are easily perceived as mixed messages and contradictions,” said Mark Fancher, Racial Justice Project Staff Attorney.
“On the one hand, the institution claims it stands with its students of color in fighting racism, but on the other hand, it seeks to punish students who are doing what they can to address the racial problems,” said Fancher.
In addition to a letter issued by the ACLU of Michigan, Michael Wood and Darius Simpson, two of the four students being sanctioned, issued letters to EMU’s executive team and several EMU Regents.
Wood wrote: “I had hoped that my university would stand on the right side of history, on my side of history, but instead am sad to learn you all would rather respond with the same militarized nature police forces across the globe have used.”
He continued, “It is truly a sad day to call myself an Eagle, but as stated above this is not about me, nor the other three gentlemen I stand with. The entire black student population is being sanctioned in this heinous move to punish the very types of direct action that Martin Luther King Jr. is praised for.”
The ACLU of Michigan believes EMU must recognize the racial realities of American society. Student leaders have called for the protest to continue indefinitely.
“Many students arrive on campus with fundamentally flawed notions and breathtaking ignorance about people of color,” said Fancher.
“The institution should, among many other things, consider establishing mandatory classes for all students that, through education will hopefully change the racial climate of the campus,” he continued.
“EMU has always and will continue to support the rights of our students to peacefully demonstrate on issues of importance to them,” said Larcom, when asked if the sanctions issued by EMU still stand.
