Syracuse University officials may take judicial action regarding a bias-related incident that occurred early Sept. 20 in Lawrinson Residence Hall.

At about 3 a.m., a black resident heard three freshman girls in her neighbor’s room playing music that featured derogatory lyrics and making derogatory comments considered racially offensive, said Kevin Morrow, SU spokesman.

The girls were singing along with song’s chorus, which repeated a racial slur many times, the victim said.

Later in the morning, she also overheard a conversation which was offensive in nature toward black people and little people. Overall, the incident lasted one hour and 14 minutes, the victim said.

The student who overheard the conversation was concerned about her own well-being and contacted her resident advisor the next morning, said Juanita Perez Williams, director of Judicial Affairs.

Two of the three students, who lived on the same floor, were removed from the floor that day to prevent further contact with the victim before the issue was resolved. The third girl involved lived in another residence hall and was not relocated.

The university regards this incident as a violation of the student code of conduct because the students’ actions could be considered threatening to the mental state of others, Morrow said.

Public Safety officers considered the event bias-related and followed the university protocol outlined to deal with such incidents, he said.

The protocol calls for two things to happen. First, officers who respond to the incident will make sure the student has support from services such as the Team Against Bias or the Office of Multicultural Affairs.

‘We try to deal with these incidents using education,’ Perez said.

Second, the student suggests to Judicial Affairs what kind of punishment, if any, should be put upon the offenders.

For example, if a victim wants the students to take a course in African-American studies, they might be satisfied enough not to ask Judicial Affairs to take punitive measures, said Perez.

Currently, officials are still in the first stage. Through a joint effort, the victim and university officials have determined the course of action for one of the three students.

‘Matters like this usually do end up in Judicial Affairs,’ Morrow said.

This incident is unique in that the people who committed the bias-related event were easily identifiable.

Many times people say or write things on message boards in residence halls and officials cannot find out who did it, Perez said..

The bias-related incident is not unique in that all three students involved were freshmen.

‘We tend to see a fair number of cases of bias-related activity because first-year students aren’t used to exposure to cultures different from their own,’ Morrow said. ‘[University officials use] the orientation process as a part to help students get used to their surroundings and their new social environment.’

The victim stressed that educating new students about cultural diversity shouldn’t be executed solely by university officials.

‘Everyone needs to create an environment that allows for anyone to feel comfortable at this campus,’ she said.

Published on October 7, 2003 at 12:00 pm