UMD Students Speak Out For Justice After Offensive Posts Found On Social Media

Several students, faculty and staff showed up to the "Speak Out For Justice" Event.

DULUTH, Minn. – Recent events on the UMD campus have shed a light on an ugly truth. Discrimination still exists.

Now students are demanding action and change.

Photos recently posted on social media have caused enough of a firestorm for students to speak out for justice.

As students prepare for Islamic Awareness Week, this is what they saw.

Someone commented, “what’s next build a bomb workshop?”

Under this photo someone wrote, “should we call united states immigration and customs enforcement?”

“There’s so much miscommunication out there and ignorance out there that people aren’t willing to hear our stories,” said UMD Vice President of Student Life Azrin Awal. “When that came out I was hurt, because I thought UMD was better than this. I guess, I was speechless, but was not surprised.”

These images were found on UMD’s Snapchat story this past weekend.

“We’re hoping that we can create a more equitable campus environment by having those discussions and also doing more cultural competency trainings or just promoting cultural competency,” said Awal/

UMD student Deiondrea VanDassor, who’s also the president of the UMD National Assocation for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) Chapter says she felt the need to be present as a minority.

VanDassor also mentioned if she didn’t have the multicultural center, UMD wouldn’t be an option for her to attend because at times she’s the only minority in her classes and doesn’t always feel comfortable.

“I have a lot of friends here who are Muslim. I have a lot of friends who are immigrants,” said VanDassor. “Even though things may not directly affect me and the way I identify it’s still important because I’m an ally to those people and if I don’t speak up and they don’t speak up nobody else will.”

Some students chose to remain anonymous while others shared experiences they’ve dealt with that were discriminatory.

students told me these incidents happen often, at least once a semester.

UMD Chancellor Lendley Black did address these recent events with a letter to campus students and staff. The letter is posted in its entirety below.

As we await the arrival of spring and turn the corner toward the end of another academic year, our UMD community continues to be challenged in our efforts toward equity, inclusion, and social justice. We have once again seen an increase in overt demonstrations of hate and intolerance, behaviors that run counter to our values as a community. None of this is unique to UMD. Across the nation there has been a rise in hate crimes and rhetoric against under-represented members of our communities. However, it is happening here, and we must take a strong stance against it. UMD has overtly stated in our strategic plan , through our values and goals and Campus Climate Initiative a strong commitment to equity and social justice. As a learning community, we must be prepared to call ourselves and each other out when we fall short and educate ourselves as we strive to do better.

Over the weekend, there were several expressions found on social media and geotagged from UMD that fall short of our values and goals. We want you to know that we are aware of these incidents, along with others. We are tracking them and we are doing what we can to mitigate their harmful impact. Incidents of hate and intolerance that appear in certain social media platforms are often difficult to track, making identification of the person responsible not possible. We have taken steps to flag inappropriate content on snapchat that has been geotagged to UMD. Such expressions that are obviously hurtful do not sustain the values we aspire to achieve.

Building a campus climate that encourages and supports equity, inclusion, and social justice is about more than one incident, or one person – it is about systems, structures, and each one of us. It is up to all of us to demonstrate our valuing of equity and inclusion and of each other as members of the UMD community. We ALL have a responsibility as members of the UMD community to educate ourselves, to be leaders toward inclusion, and to do what we can to influence others to act through the lens of Goal 2 of our strategic plan. We want to also remind you of the importance of reporting any incidents that undermine and damage a safe, respectful, and diverse campus climate. Report those incidents here.

If you are feeling unsafe at any time or for any reason you can call 911 immediately. We invite you to seek out additional campus resources. 

Together, we can be the change we wish to see.

Sincerely,

Lendley C. Black
Chancellor