Two students wearing hijabs were racially profiled on a St. Thomas intercampus shuttle bus Wednesday morning. The women were asked to present their IDs, while others weren’t. (Mia Laube/TommieMedia)
Two St. Thomas students in hijabs were singled out and asked for their student IDs before entering a campus shuttle on Wednesday, prompting a response from the Dougherty Family College dean and the suspension of the driver.
One of the women targeted, an unnamed DFC student, and DFC student witnesses reported the incident later that day to St. Thomas President Julie Sullivan during her special office hours with Kha Yang, associate vice president for inclusive excellence.
“We are grateful and proud of the DFC students who reported this incident. We all play a part in helping build an inclusive culture at St. Thomas,” DFC Dean Alvin Abraham wrote. “On Wednesday, our Muslim students were targeted but all of us lose when any member of our community is made to feel isolated, unsafe and unwelcome.”
The incident
Abraham explained the incident and the university’s response in an email to DFC students, faculty and staff Friday morning. The email did not go to the entire St. Thomas community.
“One DFC student raised concern with the driver that they were singling out students in hijabs, which the driver denied,” Abraham said in the email. “Later that day, four DFC students attended President Sullivan’s office hours to share their concerns.”
Abraham said a group of DFC students boarded the shuttle early Wednesday morning. The first few students were not asked for an ID, he said, but a student wearing a hijab was.
“This student did not have her ID,” Abraham wrote. “The driver argued with her a bit, but eventually let her enter and sit down.”
Two more students boarded before a third person, wearing a hijab but not a DFC student, was boarding the bus and was asked for her ID.
Next steps
The university is currently investigating the incident with the outside shuttle services vendor. The driver involved in the incident has been suspended, according to Abraham’s email.
“The vendor is taking this situation very seriously and is working closely with the University through the investigation,” the email said.
The email also stated that the university is requiring all shuttle drivers from the bus company to complete anti-bias training before working at St. Thomas.
This incident was reported almost a week after a racial slur was found in an Ireland Hall bathroom, prompting a teach-in and protest on the St. Paul campus, where Yohuru Williams, dean of the college of arts and sciences, declared St. Thomas as a campus that needs to be “anti-racist.”
St. Thomas will be reviewing the ID policy for shuttle riders. The website currently states that a valid St. Thomas identification card is required to ride. It does not clarify whether or not bus drivers are required to check them.
Beginning Friday, IDs were not checked for any shuttle riders. Any long-term policy changes will be communicated to the community.
“We were able to talk to them immediately and to see that the students were impacted by this, it’s very difficult. The unfortunate thing is we can’t stop it from happening, but we will try our very best to put measures in place so that we provide support to our students,” Yang said.
DFC life skills coach and counselor Angela Mendez is available for student support.
Communicating the incident
Unlike past racial bias incidents on campus, the email was not sent to the whole St. Thomas community. Yang said that colleges within the university may have individual ways of addressing issues. She also explained that not all bias incidents are communicated as campus-wide, and there are a lot of factors that determine the course of action in terms of communication.
“I think in this instance, because an individual was identified, the best thing for us to do was to immediately take action, investigate, and follow up with the appropriate individuals and not blast those names throughout the campus community,” Yang said.
In this case, all the parties involved in the incident were known. Meanwhile, last week’s Ireland Hall incident was shared through a campus-wide email because the university needed more information for the investigation.
“In other instances where we may not know who did it or who was behind the hurtful acts… we may want to do a campus-wide communication as a call for help,” Yang said.
Yang is hosting a listening session with DFC students next Thursday at noon.
“I had the opportunity to hear firsthand from (DFC) students and to know how they feel about their experiences. I’d like to learn more and hear from other folks as well,” Yang said. “In my role, I’d like to also partner with them to make sure that we also incorporate them in a meaningful way where they feel that they are included and engaged in both campuses.”
Samantha HoangLong can be reached at hoan1058@stthomas.edu.
Abby Sliva contributed to this report.
As a rider of the shuttle, I regularly get asked for my ID, along with the other riders. Same thing when I enter the AARC. I think it is a bad precedent to assume that this situation is a symptom of racial bias. I also have had the experience of not having my student ID when it was requested to experience a UST-only service, it is not fun but an important reminder to be personally responsible for having it. I think a common ground can be found here where people forget a UST ID and still are afforded the benefit of the doubt to use this service, which it sounds like was the case here. Lastly, I think it is unfair to the contractor to claim that he was “targeting” because he was following university guidelines that in my experience are regularly followed by not only that driver, but other UST-employed people in other areas of the university, such as food services, and the AARC.
This is like Rosa Parks all over again! Clearly bus drivers should not be asking students of color for their student I.D.’s since it should not be required to ride the bus without one since that is racial oppression. In my book, if you wear a hijab, you should never be asked to provide any form of identification for anything in this country!