Lauren Rabaino“This is about us,” said university president Warren Baker, urging the Cal Poly community to focus on the future of campus diversity and security during a forum Wednesday night sparked by the controversial incident at the Cal Poly crop house.
Approximately 300 students and community members attended the Campus Community Meeting on Diversity and Inclusion in the Performing Arts Center.
The meeting, which was hosted and moderated by Associated Students Inc. president Angela Kramer, gave students and community members the opportunity to ask campus administrators questions about the crop house incident.
The forum was organized into sections: a question and answer session, where audience members could ask the panel a question, and an open forum, which featured a panel consisting of deans or assistant deans from each of the university’s seven colleges as well as the vice president of student affairs Cornel Morton, Baker and Kramer.
Baker stressed the need to focus on moving on the future of the campus instead of dwelling on the negatives. He explained how the university will use the incident to change the culture of diversity on campus.
“We as a community were outraged and saddened by what happened on our campus,” he said. “We are all here this evening because we want to affect some change,” adding that he considered the crop house incident “more than an isolated incident, (and a) reflection of a larger problem.”
At times teary-eyed, Baker drew parallels he thought the incident had with the events of the Civil Rights Movements in the 1960s.
“When I heard about what happened on this campus took me back 40 years,” he said.
Kramer, who opened the event, emphasized the importance of using one’s personal college experience to positively impact the campus.
The audience asked a variety of questions. Some wondered whether the incident constituted hate speech and why it is protected. Others wanted to know what punitive actions were taken against the students involved and what actions the university is taking or will take to ensure a safe and diverse campus.
During the open forum portion, some student expressed their outrage over the incident, while others encouraged the university community to move on.
Sandra Ogren, the university vice president for advancement, explained why the acts cannot be classified as hate speech.
“We cannot take punitive action because we do not like the words people say,” she said. “Issues about protecting the First Amendment never arise unless someone is offended.”
She added that the university considers the noose in the incident to be protected speech.
While the forum was called to address the crops house incident, the panel expressed an overwhelming desire to move past the incident and look to improve the campus climate for the future.
Still, many questions from the audience focused on why the students involved in the incident were not being punished.
While acknowledging that she understood the audience’s frustration, Kramer responded she didn’t think punishment was the best option to take.
“I don’t think punitive actions should be taken,” she said. “My thoughts are that punishing them only creates more hostility.”
When asked specifically what the university is currently doing to make Cal Poly safer and more diverse, members of the panel responded with various ideas for the future, such as possibly including gender-neutral bathrooms in construction projects and revising the current USCP element of the university’s general education requirement.
While acknowledging that “incidents like this don’t help,” President Baker stressed the university’s commitment to diversity. He discussed possible plans for a Student Advocacy Office that would address concerns like this in the future.
Dean of the College of Agriculture David Wehner spoke of his college’s desire to positively impact the campus.
“I only want to talk about things that I can promise and things I can follow through with,” he said, before stating his plans for diversity training and workshops, as well as a diversity pledge.
Still, panel members were hesitant when asked what they could do to prevent a situation like this from happening again.
Morton spoke of addressing structural and institutional changes that were congruent with the university’s policy of “inclusive excellence.”
“I’m proud of Cal Poly,” Kramer said at the event’s close. “(The incident) doesn’t imply that Cal Poly has failed up until this point, it just means we need to grow.”