Bias reporting tools implemented

By Mary Georgevich

When students fell victim to offensive remarks and encountered a men's bathroom tagged with hateful graffiti two years ago, former Multicultural Center Director Bernice Aguas saw the need for an organized reporting system.

"Students didn't really have an outlet to report that or see what would be done in response to anything like that," Aguas said.

While working as a community facilitator in Walsh and McLaughlin Residence Halls, Aguas said that she also noticed a lot of homophobic or racist notes on whiteboards in residence halls.

"In training we were told in descriptions of the bias incidents, that even writing graffiti on whiteboards was considered a bias incident," she said. "But graffiti that was homophobic or racist happened so often that it was often disregarded. I would file incident reports, but I didn't feel like it was really taken seriously."

Now, as a response to student concerns, the Office of Student Life has announced changes in the reporting system for bias-motivated incidents.

In an e-mail to the campus community, Vice Provost for Student Life Jeanne Rosenberger wrote that the university has been working with faculty and students to find ways to improve the way that incidents interpreted as racist, homophobic, sexist or prejudiced in any other way were reported.

"Santa Clara defines a bias incident as a speech, act, or harassing action that targets, threatens, or attacks an individual or group because of their actual or perceived race, color, national origin, ethnicity, religious affiliation, sex, gender identity, disability, or sexual orientation," Rosenberger wrote in the e-mail.

When a student feels targeted by hateful language or sexually harassed, for example, they now have an outlet for reporting the incidents.

Specifically, the OSL has made two new resources available to students, according to Rosenberger's e-mail.

The first resource is EthicsPoint, a confidential online reporting system now available for students to report any incidents that cause concern, including bias-motivated incidents. Campus Advocates for Bias Incidents is a second resource for students who have been victims of actions they view as motivated by some sort of prejudice or bias.

Rosenberger declined requests for an interview, referring questions to Assistant Dean for Student Life Lester Deanes.

"Basically, a student can come into the Office of Student Life, they can come into Campus Safety or they can use EthicsPoint to report an issue," said Deanes. He said individuals can use any of these resources to answer questions or make a complaint. "We want to ease the reporting process for students," Deanes said.

Making the reporting process easier was a goal for Aguas as director of the MCC, at a time when she heard other complaints that probably went unreported, she said.

"People would have times where they felt professors in the classroom would say something offensive and they didn't have anywhere to turn to for reporting that," Aguas said.

The advocates are members of the faculty that have been trained in diversity issues in order to help any student who comes to them, said Deanes. He added the advocates are not there to speak for the student, but to help them.

"The point is empowerment," he said. "These folks (the advocates) are available if a student does have questions," Deanes said. "All they have to do is send an e-mail."

He said that changes should help Santa Clara record more accurate data about these incidents.

"So that if there's a pattern out there, we can address that as soon as possible," Deanes said.

He also said it is important to give students an outlet for reporting these types of incidents and to make sure they understand what can be done.

"I hope that people actually use it," Aguas said.

Contact Mary Georgevich at mgeorgevich@scu.edu.