UPDATE: 8:10 a.m. Oct. 24. This story has been updated to confirm President Sullivan’s ability to attend both events Thursday, Oct. 25.

Students, administrators and community members packed into McNeely Hall Tuesday afternoon for an open dialogue hosted by the Black Empowerment Student Alliance and Asian Students in America Club in response to a recent on-campus racial slur incident.

“Black students belong on this campus and we are not going anywhere. This behavior remains a common trend at the University of St. Thomas,” BESA said in a statement to the St. Thomas community. “Let us not be ignorant to the countless other racist acts against students of color that go unpublicized, unreported, or covered up.”

First-year student Kevyn Perkins returned to his room in Brady Hall the morning of Oct. 19 after using the restroom and found someone had written “n—– go back” on his door. He immediately scrubbed it off.

“I don’t feel safe because it was directly targeted at me, at my door,” Perkins said. “ I’m concerned about the other brothers and sisters on campus too and how they’re feeling about this.”

This is the third incident regarding the same racial slur in the last three years at St. Thomas.

“Our community has been continuously challenged by and associated with overt racist incidents and acts of systemic and institutional racism in recent years, as well as a sense that our campus is unwelcoming to students, faculty, and staff of color,” the Anti-Racism Coalition wrote in an open letter to the community.

Soon after the incident, Perkins reached out to St. Thomas junior and USG Vice President of Diversity Malcolm Lawson, who helped him report the incident to the Dean of Students, Public Safety, Office of Student Affairs and other faculty members on campus.

“I’m sad that it happened, and I’m very upset that things like that go on here,” Lawson said. “But I also appreciate that I have the opportunity to help students like that because I’ve been there.”

Lawson saw the same slur scrawled on a walkway on the Upper Quad of campus in November 2016.

This was not the first time Perkins experienced racism on campus. Earlier this year, Perkins was approached by a group of students outside of Ireland Hall who asked him, “Are you sure you belong here?”

“I kept my head down,” he said. “I felt like it was going to be different.”

Perkins has considered leaving St. Thomas but plans to finish the semester.

St. Thomas senior and Student Body President Bisrat Bayou said these acts of hatred and blatant racial discrimination are unacceptable.

“This can’t be handled in a single context. This has happened year after year,” Bayou said. “We need to hold administration accountable … something about this university that emboldens students to do these acts, to act in such a way that exemplifies (and) allows them to be racist.”

Bayou discovered the same racial slur scratched into a paper that was part of a display used to introduce himself to residents in Ireland Hall last November.

“As the student body president, I’m holding myself accountable to make sure something gets done,” Bayou said.

Administration Reaction

President Julie Sullivan and Provost Richard Plumb sent a statement to the university Oct. 21 with the subject line “Racism will not be tolerated.” In the email message, the racial slur was spelled out and quoted.

“When you read the phrase, it’s very jarring and it should be,” Sullivan said. “I want to have that emotional jarring effect to wake up our community.”

The university is currently investigating the incident. Any student found to be involved will be referred through the student conduct process and subject to sanctions up to and including expulsion, according to Sullivan and Plumb’s statement.

“It violates the principles of this community,” Sullivan said. “It’s up to me to keep this as a topic among my leadership team, among our board of trustees … ensuring that the students alone don’t bear the burden of keeping this event forefront.”

Student Action

BESA will host a sit-in at 11:50 a.m. Oct. 25 in the atrium of the Anderson Student Center. According to BESA’s event flyer, the sit-in will be a silent protest with an all-white dress code “to symbolize the current demographic at the University of St. Thomas.”

Undergraduate Student Government canceled its general council meeting Thursday to join its peers, according to USG’s statement.

“No one has the right to challenge one another’s dignity,” the statement said. “The university’s work to end normalized discrimination should never cease, and we will work hand-in-hand with them to create an equitable campus.”

BESA will have a call to action discussion with administrators and fellow students at 5 p.m. Thursday in the Sunberg Leadership Center on the third floor of ASC.

Sullivan plans to attend both events.

“We need to do all we can to create visible signs for our community that this is not tolerated,” Sullivan said. “I am in solidarity with them in their sit-in.”

Samantha HoangLong can be reached at hoan1058@stthomas.edu.