SALISBURY, Md.- Hundreds of students gathered at Salisbury University on Wednesday in protest of racist and sexist graffiti that was found on campus a few weeks ago.
The protest was held by a coalition of students called #ChangeSu, who all have a specific commitment to social equity and justice.
On Wednesday, leaders and their supporters announced 13 demands for increased racial equity and justice on campus and the greater Salisbury community.
In a press release, their demands is as follows:
The #ChangeSU Coalition’s demands called for sweeping reforms in the school’s curricula, mental health services, and diversity training of faculty, staff, and administration. For example, #ChangeSU Coalition calls for creating a diversity general education requirement and an Africana Studies program by 2021. Recognizing the link between racism, stress, and anxiety, the Coalition also demands the expansion of staffing and diversity of full-time mental health specialists and counselors on campus. Other demands focus on increased campus safety and transparent communications from administration to the community.
WBOC spoke with SU President Charles Wight who says the school has already made steps to implement some of these demands, and others, to address some of the concerns.
"Some of the changes were related to campus safety, increased police presence, security and so forth, additional resources in terms of security cameras," he said.
Other changes, Wight says, have always been on his radar to implement.
Since the incident, Wight says the school plans to relaunch its Office of Diversity and Inclusion, which has not been a sole office since 2004.
The office became part of SU’s newly formed Office of Institutional Equity, Fair Practices, Diversity and Inclusion in 2014. Effective this month, it will return to its status as a separate office in an effort to make sure the office has the most amount of resources available.
Wight also recently announced the addition of a chief diversity officer position as it continues to address campus concerns following racially and sexually-charged vandalism discovered in Fulton Hall earlier this semester.