UW students protest, demand support in response to racist video The Badger Herald

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Hundreds of students marched to Bascom Hall Wednesday morning to protest and make demands related to the University of Wisconsin’s response to a racist video by a UW student.

At 9:00 a.m., students marched from the Multicultural Student Center and Red Gymnasium to gather inside Bascom Hall, where the Blk Power Coalition submitted nine demands to the Chancellor’s Office to support students following racism encountered on the campus.

The first demand was the immediate investigation and expulsion of Audrey Godlewski, the UW student in the video who used racial slurs and swear words, and others who were seen or heard in the video .

The Blk Power Coalition also demanded a public apology from UW officials for acknowledging the harm caused by persistent racial bias on campus. They called for academic accommodations for students to come to terms with the emotional harm caused by threats against black students, institutional racism and the emotional impacts of the video.

Additionally, students demanded increased funding for safe spaces for students of color that are building a more inclusive campus community, including registered student organizations that host events to promote diversity, equity, and inclusion. .

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The Blk Power Coalition has asked the Chancellor’s Office to reassess the effectiveness of current diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives with input from student organization leaders.

[Hearing feedback from student leaders] helps ensure these issues are sufficiently addressed and upholds these efforts to prevent others from arising, said a speaker at the event.

The group also called on the Chancellors’ Office to propose and support regulations to the UW Board of Trustees to establish non-academic disciplinary procedures with a zero-tolerance policy on hate speech that would result in expulsion for activity. overt racialism.

Another request was to create and implement new mandatory programs for all students to prevent incidents of racial bias, as well as a race program to complement GetWise programming for all students.

The Blk Power Coalition has also called for the University Health Services crisis lines to be expanded to be a 24-hour resource for students to report racist incidents. Ideally, those reports would then lead to an investigation, the rep said.

The final request was to expand academic and mental health resources for students of color to help navigate the current racial climate, especially during finals and midterms.

Dean of Students Christina Olstad, Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs Lori Reesor and Director of Diversity LaVar Charleston made statements and heard student concerns during the protest inside Bascom Hall. A policeman was also present.

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Chancellor Jennifer Mnookin arrived at the protest around 11:00 a.m. to speak to students and hear demands from the Blk Power Coalitions.

You gave me these requests, Mnookin said. I hear your pain. Let me take them, let me read them carefully, let me think about what next steps we can take, and I’ll get back to you.

In the past, UW has worked with students to respond to requests. Following a 2019 video intended to connect the campus with very few people of color, the Wisconsin Black Student Union presented the university with a list of demands.

The UW then created the Coalition for Student Inclusion. According to UW, CIS has worked with student leaders to publicly acknowledge systemic racism and oppression on campus for former students of color, recognize the educational value of marginalized student groups, improve support systems for students marginalized at UW and create an infrastructure to address structural oppression.

A year after the video was released, CIS has included delegates from diverse student communities in the homecoming planning process, increased funding for the Multicultural Student Center, created the Office of Inclusive Education, made the Our Wisconsin program a requirement for all new students and provided the Divine Nine landmark, among others.

The demands of the Blk Power coalitions insisted on similar initiatives. Students at the protest said they expected a response to the Chancellor’s demands by 9 a.m. Thursday.

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In her statement, Mnookin went on to point out the legal constraints on her ability to speak and the actions she is able to take as chancellor.

You probably don’t like it, but so do you, Mnookin said.

Mnookin went on to acknowledge the value of diversity and the pain felt by the student community.

Before leaving, Mnookin told the students that they would hear from her regarding the BSU demands as early as Thursday morning.

Members of the protest then marched from Bascom Hall to Lake Street and University Avenue. The protest ended outside the Red Gym, which students had earlier criticized for not providing enough space for black students and other students of color.

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