By Kayla Brown, Staff Writer
Susquehanna’s Student Life released the bias incident report for the fall 2018 semester on Feb. 12, surrounding events by the #LiveAgainstHate campaign.
The online reporting form was reimplemented in the spring of 2018 after Vice President of Student Life Susan Lantz and Dean for Student Diversity and Inclusion Dena Salerno created an advisory committee to review the bias response protocol, according to the Student Life Annual Report of 2017-18.
There was an online reporting form years ago where a bias response team would respond to the incidents and publish a report but for the past four years or so incidents have been handled on a case by case basis, according to Salerno.
On the decision to bring back the online reporting form, Salerno said that they thought it would increase the people’s ability to report bias incidents.
Rather than a bias response team, the updated online reporting protocol will have “a bias-response coordinator who reviews all reported incidents, and a transparent communication process to share follow-up activities when incidents occur,” Lantz stated in the Student Life Annual Report.
The report stated that the Bias Report Coordinator will attempt to assess and respond to incidents within 48 hours.
Since August of 2018, there have been eight recorded incidents of hate ranging from gender to race and religion to sexual orientation.
Some of the incidents reported on campus have struck a note with students and faculty, some of whom began the #LiveAgainstHate initiative last spring.
According Lantz, this initiative followed the appearance of numerous swastikas, known to most as a Nazi symbol.
Lantz also pointed out that prior to the swastika incidents there were numerous instances of students feeling targeted due to their identities.
Lantz described #LiveAgainstHate as “a committee of faculty, staff, and students … created to create a social marketing campaign on combatting hate on campus,” in the Student Life Annual Report.
The initiative began as an anti-hate campaign with t-shirts that students were asked to wear on “SU Coming Out Day” and the Transgender Day of Remembrance. There are at least 1,000 shirts floating around campus, and students, faculty, and staff are still asked to wear them on certain days.
According to Dean of Students and Campus Life Christie Kracker, who is a major part of the initiative, the original goal was to create something that could easily be recognized, such as a hashtag or the “Stop, Slow, Go” traffic light seen around campus, and also offer support and programs to the Susquehanna community.
Like Lantz, Kracker said, “We seek to create a culture on campus where students actively combat hate speech and actively report bias…The campus community felt a need to push back against acts of bias, intolerance and hate.”
“Hate based on identity is something which colleges have struggled to fully combat. This is hard and necessary work,” Kracker stated.
#LiveAgainstHate has been involving themselves more on campus including a “How I Live Against Hate” photo competition and dedicating February to being a “Month of Radical Love.”
As the university combats the incidents and promotes inclusion, Kracker would like students to know: “No matter who you are, we are glad you are here at Susquehanna.”