After numerous incidents of hate-based graffiti on the University of Wisconsin-Platteville’s campus, faculty members, administration and students marched and chanted against racism at a faculty-led rally held Tuesday afternoon.
UW-Platteville history professor David Rowley said the rally was the result of a decision made during a Faculty Senate meeting held last Tuesday night after two Black Student Union leaders had their homes vandalized with threatening racist graffiti.
Rowley said students who came to the meeting asked the faculty to react to the issues on campus.
“The students wanted the faculty to stand up and say that they oppose racism on campus,” Rowley said.
He said the rally began as a call to faculty to show support for these students but then snowballed into a much larger event.
Rowley added about 360 people showed up to march around campus and through buildings.
He said, at one point, the group broke out into song, singing “We Shall Overcome.”
“The real goal was to show students of color that the faculty cares,” Rowley said. “It was everything I hoped it would be.”
Black Student Union Vice President Darryl Meeks said he appreciated that the professors had organized this event to stand up against racism and support equality on campus.
“It is about time that we take a stand and support other students,” Meeks said.
He added he would be attending a student-led rally that will be held Dec. 7, in which students will leave their classes at 10 a.m. and march to Ullsvik Hall.
UW-Platteville graduate students DaMontae January and Lindsay Nieman, two of the students coordinating the rally, both said they hope the event will show the victims there are a lot of people that support them and educate people on how to report hate-related crimes.
Nieman and January said the students in one of their graduate classes felt compelled to react against the racist events that have occurred on campus by creating an event with a student voice behind it.
More than 700 people have already registered to attend the rally on the event’s Facebook page.
