Dear Members of the Campus Community,
Early this morning a campus staff member discovered on a chalkboard in Wyatt Hall Room 311 hostile and inflammatory terminology targeted at African Americans and white people of lower socioeconomic status. The language has been removed and an investigation is underway by Security Services.
The use of such language is unacceptable and harms every member of this community. It creates a hostile space in the midst of an environment that should be safe, open, and accessible to all.
Let me be clear: University of Puget Sound does not—and will not—tolerate the use of discriminatory, harassing, or defamatory language. By virtue of our membership in this community, we are committed to respecting the rights, promoting the dignity, and protecting the safety of all persons. These are principles to which every single person on this campus must ascribe.
If you have information about this incident, please help make our campus a safer place by reporting it. You can do so by filling out a Bias Hate Educational Response Team online report, or by contacting in confidence any of Puget Sound’s Harassment Reporting Officers.
Sharing this message with you during what is otherwise a celebratory time of the year is especially disappointing. I urge us all to recommit to our values as a community, to open our hearts in service to others, and to go forward into the new year with a renewed sense of purpose and hope as we work to create an environment that is more fully welcoming, inclusive, and supportive of all who come here to live, to learn, and to work.
Isiaah
Isiaah Crawford, Ph.D. | President