Washington State University Moves to Make School Safer for Minorities
PULLMAN, Wash.
Washington State University will take steps to make its campus safer for minority students, President V. Lane Rawlins says.
The steps include creating a better system to report violence, recruiting more minority faculty and hiring an administrator to educate students about the perils of drinking.
Recent incidents in which Black students were beaten at fraternity parties have raised the impression that WSU is not a safe place, Rawlins said last month as he announced a plan to improve the racial climate on campus.
"Things may be worse, more dangerous, and oppressive in other places. That doesn't matter," Rawlins says. "We need a quality of life here that is supportive of all people."
A panel of students and staff recommended the actions, which the school will implement in the coming academic year.
Last fall, a Black student from Seattle was beaten during a fight between members of two fraternities. In early April, a Black member of the WSU football team was severely beaten during a brawl at a fraternity party.
The university will make it a priority to recruit and retain faculty and staff of color and make that a requirement for the school provost and academic deans, Rawlins says. Past efforts to increase the number of minority employees have failed, he says.
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