At Monday’s Faculty Senate meeting, Chancellor Rebecca Blank apologized for the University of Wisconsin’s response to an incident involving a someone dressed as President Barack Obama with a noose around his head.
In light of the incident, Blank said UW has revoked the perpetrators season tickets and will be unveiling new carry-in policies and procedures by the week’s end. Faculty seemed mostly content with Blank’s apology but some lamented UW’s original restrained response to the incident saying it undermined progress towards a more just campus climate.
“A noose is a symbol of some of the worst forms of racial hatred and intimidation in our countries history and we understand this and we should have communicated that more forceful in the beginning,” Blank said.
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In response, Chris Walker, professor of dance, thanked Blank for the apology but said the initial response had been detrimental to work being done to better the campus climate. In particular, Walker said efforts by students and community members are particularly hampered when rhetoric at the administrative level doesn’t match with whats being said on the ground.
Walker said the way UW responded made people of color at UW feel left out and alone and cautioned against taking the defensive when responding to high profile incidents such as this.
“Sometimes our immediate response is ‘how do we protect our institution,’ but the institution is made up of individuals… and so every individual is responsible,” Walker said.
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Blank also discussed UW’s ongoing efforts to facilitate the investigation into the Alec Cook case and encouraged students to come avail themselves of either campus or police resources should they experience sexual assault in any form. She said she felt saddened the victims in the Cook case had not felt they could report their experiences.
The Faculty Senate also approved a new UW specific post-tenure review policy via voice vote.
A timeline of Alec Cook’s criminal complaints, legal proceedings
