Racial Name-Calling at Diversity Retreat Leads to Firing
Ousted coordinator says dismissal was retribution for “Driving While Black” lawsuit.
By Dianne Hayes

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 an Asian student “Chink” — as a means of making the derogatory words lose their power.

They didn’t lose their power, but his boss — the multicultural affairs coordinator at the university — lost her job.

“An event intended to bring students together and improve relationships, ended up pushing 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 coordinator, Andita Parker-Lloyd. He contends that she was forced out after filing a federal civil rights lawsuit against the city of Wilkes-Barre following a February traffic-stop arrest.

Parker-Lloyd also says she believes the lawsuit is the real reason for her termination. She says she had always received good performance appraisals during her tenure.

“Wilkes has always been my second home. I was a student here,” she says. “I feel we were making great inroads around diversity and getting all types of students involved in campus-wide 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 people 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, two deans informed Parker-Lloyd that they would be looking into the students’ allegations. She says she initially didn’t have the impression that her job was on the line. But, that Thursday she was suspended with pay. She was fired the next day.