09 Nov 02

Once again, UVM is faced with the reality of institutional racism. How many more years will this denial continue to exist? How much longer will the dominant UVM culture continue to bury their collective heads?

Read what President Dan Fogel had to say about the recent racial profiling incident and how it was covered in the Burlington Free Press.

President Dan Fogel sends a campus email to announce that the "investigation clearly shows that serious mistakes were made." He will assemble a "team of professionals [to].....help us develop strategies to preclude a repreat occurrence of such a situation." He also will "create opportunities for open dialogue" to discuss this "most painful and difficult series of events" and vows to " learn from this."

Personal comment: Where have we heard this before? How many UVM presidents have we heard make this promise? Look back on this web site to read about the "learning" that happens on the BACKS OF STUDENTS OF COLOR! While this "incident" may be painful for President Fogel, it is more painful for the students of color who continue to experience insitutional racism throughout the UVM campus every day.

The Burlington Free Press reports that the officer involved with this racial profiling "incident" has been suspended and disciplinary action will be taken.

President Fogel appoints his President´s Task Force on Racial Diversity which he will chair. While there is some glimmer of hope here - he is chairing it and it specifically addressing race -- it is too soon to tell what will come of it. History has shown that each task force or committee that has been organized resulted in many meetings and lots of paper but NO ACTION. I wish them well.

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