Conveying a Simple, Yet Difficult Message
How Whitman College officials and student-leaders moved swiftly to prevent a racial incident from dividing the campus.

Colleges and universities across the country are searching for understanding and answers in the wake of several recent incidents of racial insensitivity involving their students.

What are we to make of the numerous campus incidents with racial overtones that have afflicted many of our leading institutions: Johns Hopkins University, Clemson University and my own school, Whitman College? The incidents remind us how far we still have to go to ensure simple consideration and respect for all people, of all colors and backgrounds on our campuses.

At times, the distance seems vast.

As president of Whitman, a liberal arts college known for its outstanding students, humanistic values and long tradition of service, I was stunned by an incident last fall in which two of our students, both White, painted their skin black for a theme party modeled on the reality TV series, “Survivor.”

Pictures of the students appeared on the Internet, and many in our community were understandably offended. What followed was a spontaneous, often vitriolic e-mail exchange that threatened to undermine our recent initiatives to make Whitman a stronger, more dynamic community through greater diversity. At that point, I was sure of only one thing: The divisiveness had to stop, and it had to stop immediately. 

Unilateral action was not a consideration. We chose a collective course from the start. Our focus was always on the community of Whitman, a decision that was met with enormous support from our students, faculty and staff.

Senior administrators and I met with 40 student leaders for nearly four hours. We asked them what they could do to address the overarching issue signified by the events. Our message was simple but difficult: “If you want to change the climate of discourse, you and not us have to take responsibility,” we said. “If you want to mobilize fellow students and explore attitudes, you have to take the initiative.”