Stentor staff is aware of the controversial issues that are impacting the campus community, and there will be further coverage of the specific incidents mentioned in these Letters to the Editor in our last issue of the semester, which will be published on Friday, December 6, 2019. Our staff is dedicated to reporting the facts, and as new developments are made every day, we determined that we would be able to inform the community via a more complete and informed article after continued research and interviews. The next Community Caucus, a forum for students, faculty, and staff hosted by the College’s Intercultural Advisory Group (IAG), will be hosted in Meyer Auditorium on Thursday, November 21 at 11 a.m, and members of the campus community are encouraged to attend and contribute to the conversation. As always, thank you for your support and for picking up this month’s copy of The Stentor. Your Editor-in-Chief, Sangjun Hornewer ‘20
Editor’s note: The letter below was written by Zaria Sydnor ‘20 and read aloud
on October 24, 2019, at the Intercultural Advisory Group (IAG) Community Caucus in the Meyer Auditorium. Stentor staff received permission from Sydnor to reprint her letter below:
Community Caucus
Good morning everyone and thank you for being here today to share concerns and experiences within our campus. My name is Zaria Sydnor. I am a senior here at the college, and my pronouns are she, her, hers. As a student here, we are ALL expected to embrace diversity. It is unfortunate that this standard is not truly exemplified by all students. Almost a month ago, Saturday, September 28, 2019, a volleyball player, [Editor’s
note: name redacted], assaulted two football players as well as her own teammate. She is also ON VIDEO saying n**** [Editor’s note: word altered], on one occasion and has been heard using it in other instances, as well. If you weren’t aware of this situation, it is most likely because administration has not made it a priority to make it known that this event took place. As a student who chooses to “embrace diversity,” especially within our campus climate, I emailed the coach of the team as well as staff within OIR and Jackie Slaats in the athletic department. My email was seemingly well received. I met with Claudia, we discussed the matter, and I expected consequences to follow, removal from the team at the least. Apparently, no one shared my vision. I was informed that [Editor’s note: name redacted] warmed up in her game this past Tuesday, October 22, 2019. Out of curiosity, I checked her player log on the athletic’s website. I found that she played LAST WEEK, Tuesday, October 15, 2019. That doesn’t seem like an adequate punishment for something that is a hate crime. Yes, a hate crime which is defined as “a crime, typically one involving violence, that is motivated by prejudice on the basis of race, religion, sexual orientation, or other grounds.” It is always the same students fighting this battle and the battle is against administration as well as the students who are usually not held accountable. Why is it that the only way anyone would really know about the situation is if you associate with someone else who was there and knew about it? Why is it that the volleyball team cannot even discuss the matter with other students who could also be harmed by this girl? Why does administration go so hard to protect perpetrators of bias instead of working just as hard to hold your students accountable? Who exactly are you all trying to protect? What more can be done about this situation and when will administration make the decision to fight for AND with the students of color instead of working to silence us? You tell us to report these issues, but then the situations are inadequately addressed and dismissed. Your silence is complacency. Therefore, we don’t trust you. Many of us would rather hold our tongues and save our energy than to trust you all with problems on this campus because you all have demonstrated time and time again that you cannot
be trusted to hold people accountable. Fix this situation, as well as others, or the next time she calls someone a n**** [Editor’s note: word altered], I’ll be sure to address it in the appropriate manner since you all can’t seem to have your [Editor’s note: phrase redacted] and do it yourselves. Thank you.
Zaria Sydnor ’20
Editor’s note: The letter below was written by Sarah Coffman ‘21 and sent to Student Government on October
30, 2019. Coffman read the letter at the Student Government meeting on October 31, 2019. Stentor staff received permission from Coffman to reprint her letter below:
Dear Student Government Officials,
I’m positive you are all aware that a recent post containing Zaria Sydnor’s statement about [Editor’s note: name redacted] is cycling on Snapchat and Instagram. Another Snapchat that is also circulating (from Sandra Khouri) urges students to look for other ways to protest recent campus events and protect the perpetrator of racial violence, who could come forward at any time to defend herself or issue a public apology. With recent incidents of “bias” (outright racism) on campus, students have taken it upon themselves to highlight the disappointing response of the administration, and I would like to take this email to express my discontent with Student Government’s response as well. I find it disheartening that you all have failed to address the nature of the “bias incident” (more appropriately, hate crime) that occurred on campus nearly a month ago until the legal repercussions set in for students who have decided to protest against this heinous act. Like other campus issues such as the formation of the white student organization, Kanoe Montaño’s art project pointing out inequalities, and the student organizations confrontation of the lack of effort and resources to empower students of color on campus, the administration has treated this incident as a public relations scandal, not an indication of problematic student and faculty behavior. Recurring incidents concerning bias and inequality are becoming increasingly distressing for marginalized students at Lake Forest, and Student Government has provided no support for them since the “Listen and Be Heard Panel” in Spring of 2018. The community caucuses led by IAG are the first effort since “Listen and Be Heard” to promote an inclusive campus community and it is sad that the caucuses are not promoted by Student Government. Also, since I was in attendance, I can say that the student body president himself attended the community caucus last Thursday. An email to the student body may have shown that you all are educated and concerned about recent campus events and want
to provide support, but that email was never sent (and I am inclined to say that it was never considered). Despite what Sandra’s Snapchat encourages, we do not want to use you as a resource or discuss other
means of protest. We want you to express the same anguish and fervor against racist
actions on campus. As students who represent us, I personally expect you all to have similar concerns about students being silenced or endangered, but it seems like you are removed from us and opt to trust the
slow, ineffective bureaucratic processes that discount student trauma and avoid swift punishment for alarming student behavior. In conclusion, it is clear that Student Government as an organization has sided
with the administration in the same manner of process, procedure and law, not
morality and justice. During such tumultuous, and dare I say, dangerous times for students of color on campus, Student Government’s silence is discouraging. By saying nothing at all, you have shown students of color that you do not support them and their struggle to be recognized as legitimate, valuable students who deserve protection against racist actions. As Dean Conner said, “Do better.”
Sarah Coffman ’21
Editor’s Note: The letter below was written by Student Government President Zachary Jenkins ‘21 on October 31, 2019 in response to Sarah Coffman’s ‘21 letter to Student Government on October 30, 2019. Stentor staff received permission from Jenkins to publish his letter below:
Dear Sarah,
Thank you for reaching out regarding your concerns about Student Government’s response (or apparent lack thereof) to this incident. Please believe me when I say it actually does matter that students reach out to Student Government, be it to provide criticism, seek help, or anything else.
As you said in your statement, all members of Student Government’s Executive Board are indeed aware of the fact that Zaria Sydnor’s statement about the incident is circulating social media. However, due to the timeline between the IAG meeting last week and now, there has not yet been a full Senate meeting, so I cannot speak to the level of knowledge that anyone outside Exec might have currently. In addition, though the incident may have occurred a month ago, I and the rest of Core Exec did not know about it until it was brought up at the IAG meeting.
With regard to Vice-President Khouri’s Snapchat story, I understand where the frustration can be derived from. You may feel as though this is not only the first visible response from a member of Student Government, but that it is also protecting the perpetrator of a hate crime. Though I am not Vice-President Khouri, having known her for the past two and a half years and working with her for the vast majority of that time, I can absolutely say that this was not the intention. In one of the incidents currently being worked through on campus, the student activist was asked to find an alternative approach because the way that they were getting across their message was such that it put themselves and everyone involved at risk for legal action over slander/libel. Until it is established in court that someone has done what they are accused of, any defamation of character is grounds for a lawsuit against individual students and the college. I wholeheartedly believe that Vice-President Khouri put what she did on her story not with the intention to allow [Editor’s note: name redacted] to slip by without ramifications, but instead to protect student activists. I assure you, Vice-President Khouri has your interests at heart not only as a member of Student Government but also as a fellow peer.
The major takeaway from this statement is that you’re disheartened with Student Government’s response to not only this incident, but all of the incidents like this that have occurred on campus in these past few years. As I said in the first paragraph, I want to thank you for bringing it up, that alone takes courage. The last thing I’m going to do is write a response that stands purely in the defense of Student Government. We’re an organization that is constantly growing and in each iteration of Student Government we hope to get better at representing the Student Body. I will not deny that there’s something more we could’ve done for each of these situations. That’s where input from our Senators, and through them the Student Body, comes into play and makes us better. That’s where the “Listen and Be Heard” panel originally came from back during our Freshman Year.
The IAG we were both at last Thursday was actually reborn and redesignated out of the “Listen and Be Heard” Panel. Following the last three “Listen and Be Heard” events we in Student Government along with our campus partners heard feedback from students that stated while the space was great to unpack the stress of issues on campus, it wasn’t the best for creating actual
results. Or put more straightforward in one account: “it was an echo chamber and a waste of time. We didn’t reach the population (students who shared the opinions of Battle) [Editor’s note: This refers to the creation of the “United White Association” Facebook group by Battle Kenney ‘18 on September 16, 2017] that needed to hear it, everyone just had the same opinion.” Hearing this type of feedback and with the recurring issues of social inequity following 2018, we worked with key administration including President Schutt and Dean Conner to reconstitute the IAG, giving students a constant, steady outlet for exactly these types of concerns. Essentially, IAG is what we hoped would replace “Listen and Be Heard” panels, being both a listening panel and advisory/advocacy group, but if students need another outlet we may bring “Listen and Be Heard” back around.
We have worked with key administration figures on every social justice issue on campus since 2018, doing our best to get the spokespeople for these critical issues access to the proper resources and to advocate for the needs of the student population in the right rooms. Our goal in Student Government is to represent the students to the administration and the administration to the students. Better said by our Campus Affairs Committee Chair Vitoria Andrade Carnier in our Executive Board meeting yesterday: “Student Government serves as a bridge between the two groups; we’re here to help both sides make it to each other.”
The way that we have maintained that communication in the past two semesters has been via strategic communication with student activists such as yourself and the campus administration, which has meant that the communication has been limited to select members of campus. This begs the question of how could you or anyone else know that we were doing our job, or rather, maintaining the bridge, if we never told you that we were? How can anyone trust a bridge that they don’t know is structurally sound? That is fully on me, and I apologize that there was no larger communication outside our minutes to let you and the rest of the Student Body know that you’re being heard and we’re working on results. One perfect example of something we could’ve been doing is promoting the IAG meetings, you’re absolutely right. Thank you for bringing it to our attention.
Emails to the Student Body are a precarious thing, being that if we send one too early we risk not getting the story right or being light on content, and if we send one later when we have all the facts we end up with a “too little, too late” like with President Schutt’s last email on the n-word situation last semester. On the other side of this coin, the general sentiment Student Government has heard about Dean Conner’s recent email on this incident is that while it was timely it wasn’t satisfying. As students we still unfortunately know just about as much as the rest of students on campus until well after campus situations have happened and we have a chance to confer. We do not have access to the privileged information the relevant faculty/staff do. So, we don’t want to send out a dissatisfying or incorrect email but a detailed email addressing student concerns fully, like this, takes time (as you’ve now unfortunately experienced, this response coming a little over a day later). I don’t say all this in defense of not making commentary on the situation but instead to genuinely ask your opinion: as an active leader of the student body, do you believe more emails would be helpful? And if so, sooner but imperfect or perfected but late?
Student Government has never supported racism, violence, sexual misconduct, or anything of the like, and we don’t plan on starting anytime soon. I can speak confidently on behalf of all of Senate when I say that we do have similar concerns about students being silenced or endangered, and are also experiencing anguish and fervor over the racist actions we have seen on campus in the past year. We are students on this campus, just the same as you. That being said we are a bureaucratic organization as well, with our own systems and processes, the same as you are speaking against. Separate from the administration, but still a process that takes time to get things right. While we do not believe that the bureaucratic processes of the campus are infallible, I’d personally say morality and justice cannot be had without procedure and law. Any tangible results (such as punishment) need to be a result of a fair and legally defensible process. The reason that the school hasn’t taken harsher action in this particular situation is because, up to this point, no one has made a report to Public Safety. Similar to any real world situation, if no cops (Public Safety Officers) are present to witness the event and the witnesses (the team mate and other two men who were assaulted) do not want to press charges (make a report), there’s nothing the courts (conduct system) can do. Thus far, this incident has only gone through the bias report system run by OIR. That all being said, as Vice-President Khouri said in her response yesterday morning, she just had a sit down meeting with the two students who were assaulted to discuss whether or not a report would be the right decision for them, so that may change.
Where Student Government does most of its work is in looking for ways to improve the processes of the campus to better accommodate and represent student needs, because right now fac/staff and students alike acknowledge that things aren’t perfect. If students have ideas on how to make the processes of the college work better we in Student Government would love to hear them and work with our campus partners to make them happen. We’ve established a dialogue with the administration purely around the genuine hope of making the processes on campus better.
You’re right in saying that we as Student Government have been more quiet recently than we should have. Thank you for drawing attention to that and holding us accountable. The appearance that Student Government has been removed from all this is my fault and this email was a much needed wakeup call. You’re calling on Student Government for support in this matter because we haven’t done our job communicating to the Student Body where we’re at. We’ve operated off of an assumption that you as the Student Body knew we were trying to help and in doing so we haven’t put our methods out there for your review and critiques. The worst result of this is that anyone might feel that we do not support students of color and their struggle to be safe from racism. We’re horrified that this is the message coming across.
In all, we hope to better communicate to the Student Body what Student Government is doing and get your input so that we can “do better” moving forward.
I’m looking forward to seeing you at Senate later tonight. Please expect an email from me soon regarding how this meeting will be run to allow for full exploration of this topic.
Sincerely,
Zachary Jenkins ’21
Student Government
President
Editor’s note: The College Council minutes below were sent to the campus community via email on November 5, 2019.
College Council Minutes: November 4, 2019
Present: Steve Schutt (chair), Jared Applegate, T.R. Bell, Daw-Nay Evans, Ursula Grzesiuk, Jackie Hoefler, Zachary Jenkins, Rob Lemke, Paul Nehring, Nilam Shah
Absent: None
College Council spent the entire meeting discussing the College’s Bias Incident Response (BIR) process and related policies and procedures. Members first clarified several aspects of the current BIR process, including: (i) bias incident reports can be filed anonymously; (ii) the BIR process is handled by the Office of Intercultural Relations and Dean of Students if the charge is against a student, by the Dean of Faculty if the charge is against a faculty member, or by the Director of Human Resources if the charge is against a staff member; and (iii) a bias complaint against a student can be transferred to the Student Conduct Process if it rises to the level of harassment, discrimination, or verbal abuse.
College Council members then discussed possible ways to quickly improve how the College responds to bias charges. The strongest outcome of the discussion was that College Council unanimously supports the idea that students who are privileged to officially represent the College – for example, as Forester guides, student athletes, resident assistants, student club leader/members, or members of ensembles – should face the loss of the privileges they enjoy if they engage in biased behavior.
College Council, in connection with recent FPPC minutes, urges President Schutt, in a timely manner, to formally reconsider the Bias Incident Report process with particular attention paid to the speed and intention of outcomes. With the intention of keeping this at the center of College Council’s attention, the Council requested that President Schutt provide College Council with data on the frequency of bias incident reports on campus and to provide College Council with an update at next week’s meeting.
College Council will next meet on Monday, November 11
Respectfully Submitted,
Rob Lemke
Secretary for the Semester
