Prior to Chace's brief address, his first to the Commission since coming to Emory last year, student PCSM members told of the anger and fear they've experienced since the occurrence of several racist incidents on campus this semester. "The students are very concerned and upset," said freshman Katrina Samuels. "These incidents have shaken the faith of the student body." Samuels said that students were concerned that several weeks seemed to have passed between the occurrence of racial incidents in residence halls and the administration's response to those incidents. (The victims initially requested that the incidents not be made public.)
Samuels also said many students believe that while plagiarism or other forms of cheating would result in immediate removal from the Emory community, little is done to punish those who commit racial harassment or to prevent such acts from happening. She added that even when violators are punished by the Conduct Council, students never know about it because those proceedings and their results are kept secret.
In his response, Chace said that as soon as he was made aware of the residence hall incidents, he moved swiftly in directing the Emory Police to identify those responsible and to communicate with students through a residence hall forum.
Chace also pointed out that because American society continues to have an intractably racist character, people will invariably bring their individual prejudices to Emory. "We do all that we can to try and prevent these kinds of incidents from happening," Chace said. "`But there is no impermeable membrane separating us from the larger community. People will bring their problems and prejudices here."
The power of a University president to prevent such incidents, Chace said, is far more limited than most would like to believe. "We live in a very big little city at Emory," he said. "And I predict there will be a racial incident in the future. I'm more interested in finding the people who did it and less interested in hand-wringing over racism on campus. I won't be happy until there are no racist incidents on this campus, but I must remember that we do live in the real world."
In addition to his ongoing efforts to prevent racist incidents, Chace also pledged to explore other concerns raised by the PCSM, including the strengthening of minority faculty recruitment and retention efforts, development and training programs for lower-paid staff, and financial aid and scholarship issues concerning minority students.
--Dan Treadaway