WILKES-BARRE, Pa.

The diversity training consultant called one Wilkes University student of Indian descent a “terrorist.” He also had student athletes at a diversity retreat call another student “Chink” — as a means of making the derogatory words lose their power.

They didn’t lose their power, but his boss lost her job.

“An event intended to bring students together and improve relationships ended up bringing them further apart,” says university spokesman Jack Chielli.

The diversity consultant, who acknowledges making mistakes during the retreat exercises, says the incident was just the excuse university officials needed to get rid of the newly hired multicultural affairs coordinator, Andita Parker-Lloyd. He contends that she was forced out after she had filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against the city of Wilkes-Barre following a February traffic-stop arrest.

“Wilkes has always been my second home. I was a student here,” Parker-Lloyd says. “I feel we were making great inroads around diversity and getting all types of students involved in campuswide diversity efforts.”

The incident that precipitated Parker-Lloyd’s dismissal began the weekend of Sept. 8, during a two-day retreat for a dozen student leaders led by diversity trainer Ron Feldhun. Feldhun says he sought to address perceptions and desensitize the students to hurtful words by using them repeatedly. 

“Teaching people not to react and give power to words is part of the course,” he says.

But some students complained to university officials about the name calling, which also included being called “third world.” The Monday following the retreat, Parker-Lloyd was called into a meeting with two deans. That Thursday she was suspended with pay. She was gone the next day.

Feldhun, who was hired by the previous multicultural affairs coordinator, takes responsibility for making errors in his exercises at the retreat and says the blame is misplaced.