A series of dramatic hate crimes has hit campus this fall, shocking both students and administrators with their frequency and their severity. Eleven incidents have been reported so far this semester, and there is a growing concern that this rise in incidents may be causing an insecurity in the Tufts community.
These incidents, which the Dean of Students office refers to as "incidents of intolerance," have ranged from homophobic messages to assault and battery. Over a typical year, about a dozen of these offenses are reported, and the University has never seen this many incidents at such an early date before.
"I've never seen a pace this fast," Dean of Students Bruce Reitman said. "It astounds me sometimes about people's capability for callousness and hatred. And if people think the only way you can hate people is physically, then they're going through life with their eyes closed."
The slew of incidents has caused concern among administrators about the safety of the students on campus. University President John DiBiaggio addressed the incidents on campus both during Parent's Weekend and at a meeting with the overseers of Residential Life. He also sent an e-mail to students on Wednesday to call a stop to the incidents, and urging people to attend last night's "Speak Out", co-sponsored by the Committee on Ethnic and Cultural Affairs and Residential Life.
"Each of us at Tufts has a right to expect a welcoming, tolerant environment on campus. Anything less shortchanges all of the members of the community," DiBiaggio wrote.
Dean Reitman issued a letter out to all students and placed ads in the Daily and Observer in late September informing them of the five incidents reported up to that point. Of the 11 total incidents, six were homophobic in nature. Three incidents took place in dormitories, specifically in South, Lewis, and Haskell Halls. The incidents include a hate e-mail to a Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgendered (LGBT) student, and two incidents of intolerance based on sexual orientation which are still being adjudicated.
The remaining five incidents include a physical assault based on race, an indecent assault based on gender, two life threats based on ethnic background and race respectively, and one incident involving hate words and epithets based on race. Several of these are under investigation, Tufts University Police Department (TUPD) Captain Mark Keith said. However, it appears that finding the perpetrators is only likely in two of the incidents.
Students report that they have been stunned by the number of hate crimes occurring this year. "I was really shocked to hear about the incidents because one of the reasons I chose Tufts was because it seemed like a secure, safe environment. I thought diversity would prevent things like this from happening rather than encouraging them," freshman Julia Buck said.
"I think it's sad that people in such a diverse environment as Tufts still cannot find it in their heart to accept others for any differences. The most logical thing to do right now is to organize a rally in support of people with differences... to make these hateful people feel like they are the minority for once," senior Michael Yee Lun Leung said.
In searching for the reasons behind such malice, Reitman cited the prevalence of technology and computers, which provide a capacity for students to be hateful without being caught.
Women's Center Director Peggy Barrett said that the behavior is in part related to today's culture. "[People] feel that there will be no social consequences if they act in prejudicial ways. I would say ten years ago... people would have been more careful about what they said and how it would be perceived by others," she said.
LGBT Center Director Judith Brown said that the homophobic incidents might be a negative effect of strong LGBT presence on campus. "I have felt the shift to more hate and more anger," she said. "It seems to me that [the community is] growing in its intolerance and expressing it. I really wonder if it's a backlash because we're a lot more visible this year."
Several attempts have been made by administrators and the culture centers to address these incidents. The LGBT Center has sponsored events called "Team Q"- panels of students who discuss LGBT issues. For South Hall residents, attendance at "Team Q" events was mandated due to the growing concern of the Res Life staff about incidents occurring in the building.
In some presentations, negative and offensive students undermined the normally positive impact of "Team Q". In one location, during a question and answer session, one unidentified student wrote "This [presentation] was extremely sickening to me... [Homosexuality] is a choice and a very unnatural one."
Reitman said that trying to stop hate crimes altogether is unrealistic, but that the number of incidents can be decreased by creating an atmosphere that lessens the capability of intolerance. "We need to cut out the enablers and make them see the pain of the victims and not the glee of the perpetrators," he said.
According to Reitman, the keys to doing this are increasing awareness and encouraging opportunities such as last night's Speak Out. Some students have suggested informing students via e-mail or voicemail when incidents occur, but Reitman deemed this strategy ineffective. He fears that people may start becoming immune to the messages and simply delete them by the ninth or tenth incident
"It might lesson the impact of the message we're trying to send," he said.
The TUPD is also making efforts to increase safety by developing a new liaison program for the various Cultural Centers across campus. A police officer will be assigned to each cultural center to improve the lines of communication between issues of public safety, Keith explained.
The process, however, will be a long-term effort, and administrators are concerned as to the effect the incidents are having on campus right now.
"I think the incidents have increased people's fear of others on campus, which will have an effect on their sense of community on campus," Barrett said.
Some students, however, said they do think Tufts is a fairly safe campus and remain optimistic that the majority of the students embrace diversity and counteract the negative forces. "I feel safe because we have a very accepting campus and only a small fraction of the Tufts community is responsible for these hate incidents," sophomore Jenna Covucci said.
When an act of intolerance occurs, the Administrative Response Team, which is formed after a recommendation from the Task Force on Race, is given the task of handling the issues. Two steps are taken: recommending the nature of the response and the means for presenting the response, according to Margery Davies, a member of the Response Team and also Director of the Office of Diversity Education and Development. Ensuring the privacy of the victim is important, which is one reason why information is often not released immediately.
Davies and other administrators encourage anyone who witnesses an act of intolerance to take the responsibility to report it and speak out about it to the community.
"It's hard to know how much of the general student population, or even the Tufts community at large, including faculty, know about the incidents because they aren't involved firsthand with the people who suffer from them and the organizations who suffer with them," Barrett said.
