Six of seven speakers at a public forum Thursday urged a UNC system commission to create a hate crimes policy and mandate diversity training for students at the state's public universities.
Several said a specific university-wide policy on hate crimes would make the college experience more comfortable for students who, by virtue of their race, religion or sexual orientation, have been subject to abusive comment from their fellow students.
Others said mandatory diversity training would help establish a behavioral baseline for students and make clear that some things are not acceptable. One student emphasized that students long remember their interactions with other students far longer than, for example, they remember what they learned in some generic freshman class.
The forum was one way in which citizens could chime in on the work of the commission, created after bigoted messages threatening President-Elect Barack Obama were discovered in early November in the Free Expression Tunnel at N.C. State. (That's the tunnel in the above photo)
Four NCSU students eventually confessed to writing the messages; they were not charged with a crime.
Though the NCSU incident isn’t the subject of the commission’s work, speakers referred to it repeatedly Thursday.
Hunter Corn, representing Equality N.C., a gay and lesbian rights advocacy group, said he was bothered by NCSU’s response to the Free Expression Tunnel incident and others in the past on that campus.
"A call to hang or shoot someone is a call for violence,” he said. “That authorities in the N.C. State case didn’t charge anyone is truly frightening."
Of the seven who spoke Thursday, just one opposed the creation of a hate crimes policy. Katherine Lewis Parker, legal director for the American Civil Liberties Union of North Carolina, dismissed the graffitti found in the N.C. State tunnel as “abhorrent” but said it should not lead to a policy that may limit free speech.
“The statements were made by cowards who do not have the guts to stand up and say who they are,” Parker said. “And we don’t doubt the fear felt on campus. This is a tough one, it really is. However, the First Amendment protects free speech, no matter how offensive.”
Parker added that colleges are the perfect venues to combat offensive language with constructive response.
"More speech, not less, is the best case,” she said. “This is particularly true at universities, whose missions...are to enlighten.”
While most of Thursday’s speakers voiced their support for a hate crimes policy, others clearly do not. Many of the two dozen folks who e-mailed their comments to the UNC commission prior to Thursday's forum see any sort of hate crimes policy as an infringement on free speech.
The panel is charged with determining whether the UNC system should have a hate crimes policy governing behavior at all its member campuses, and is also considering whether mandatory diversity training for students is a good idea.
In conducting its work, there are plenty of legal issues for the commission to wade through. More on that here.
The commission will likely meet again later this month. It is expected to conclude its work and make a recommendation to UNC system leaders by the end of March.
Comments
This whole exercise in
Fri, 01/16/2009 - 00:36 — SweetsieThis whole exercise in thought control is garbage. Erskine Bowles ain't worth a da--, just a bowl of liberal jelly. Check the posters on the WRAL comments section on this story. 95 per cent of them think this is all garbage. Productive citizens were working during this meeting so you did not get to hear from them. Diversity training mandates are nothing but propaganda from politically correct leftists. They are usually conducted by black contract instructors and it is nothing but a money thing under the guise of doing a noble work. If Bowles had a spine, he would tell this bunch of nuts to get the H--- out of there since limitation of free speech IS unconstitutional. But then again, he was the idiot that set it up in the first place.
Big Mistake
Thu, 01/15/2009 - 20:26 — maltesseI will agree with Flowerpower & omegaman But this bull about wanting to MANDATE diversity training for students at the state's public universities That's bull. These so called diversity programs that their Duke & UNC Historian Professors are peddling for $$$ are all about racism. Just like the big boy from Durham. It boils down to this if you are a respectiful citizen. You are judged by your actions not your color. They need to clean up their own Playpen before dictaing and intimidating and yes when someone acts like a fool and boycotts others to go by their rules thats intimidating.
Got To be Applied Equally Both Ways
Thu, 01/15/2009 - 17:50 — omegamanI agree with Flowerpower on this one. This one-way stuff has to cease. I'm getting tried of the Ol' Fat Boy from Durham hollering when something doesn't go his way then keeping quiet when one of "his" is the do-er instead of the do-ee.
Any policy has to be transparent and applied equally - no more of this reverse discrimination.
Must be broad
Thu, 01/15/2009 - 16:48 — FlowerpowerIf UNC adopts such a policy, it must cut both ways. It cannot be used to penalize ONLY white people, or white MALE people.
If a black boy says something derogatory about a white boy, such as "Crackah" he must be charged with a hate crime; otherwise, such a policy would be discriminatory in itself, and would not stand a constitutional test. Be very careful, UNC.