Two events were held on Kennesaw State’s campus that addressed recent racial incidents including reports of racial profiling, rumored threats of a racially fueled shooting and the exposition of a discriminatory group chat.
Alumnus Jaye Newton and sophomore psychology majors Dasia Jones and Jazzmyne Shorter hosted a town hall in conjunction with KSU’s NAACP chapter, which centered around making students aware of their legal rights during interactions with authorities.
The “Know Your Rights” town hall was held in the Student Center University Rooms on Feb. 19, from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. in response to Newton being pulled over by a Kennesaw police officer with Jones and Shorter in the vehicle.
All three claimed that the officer racially profiled them and falsely accused Newton of driving on the wrong side of the road, running a red light and having a marijuana roach in his car.
“I was like, ‘Okay clearly, there’s a much bigger issue at hand,'” Jones said. “So we need a space to encourage people to speak and keep pressure on one another and keep pressure on Kennesaw.”
“A lot of people either are scared of the police or they don’t have the time to dive into what their rights are,” Newton stated during the town hall. “So when that time comes [when pulled over by a police officer] and a police officer says you have to do something, you’ll know if you have to do it.”
Elected officials of KSU’s Student Government Association, Senator for American Minorities Bisma Hussain and Director of External Affairs Matthew Weese were there to voice support for students concerned about the racial climate on campus.
“We’re here because we want to make this school a better place,” Hussain said. “Nobody should have to go to school worrying about their life.”
Elijah John, the target of the discriminatory group chat, also attended the town hall and mentioned that he wants students, faculty and staff to take a “diversity management course” before attending the university so that everyone is educated on different issues such as race and religion.
In addition to the town hall, the Presidential Commission on Racial and Ethnic Diversity held a meeting on Feb. 21 to discuss “issues relating to the recent racial incidents at KSU.” Panelists from various departments around KSU spoke about how students, faculty and staff can report incidents on campus.
Deputy Police Chief and Director of Administrative Operations Trudi Vaughan would not comment on the rumored threat of a shooting on campus in early February because it was an ongoing investigation at the time.
A meeting agenda was passed out to everyone in attendance, and it detailed how to report incidents, how investigations are handled in various departments across the university and how KSU can handle issues of diversity through training and educational opportunities.
KSUnited leader Alexa Vaca made a comment about campus police’s policy on learning more about campus emergencies.
“I think that the police have the duty to inform the KSU community about issues that affect our safety, and we shouldn’t have to go in and file an open-records request to know what happened,” Vaca said.
“I think that your concerns are valid,” vice president and chief legal affairs officer Nwakaego Nkumeh said. “However, if there is a pending investigation then there are limitations in which we can provide information. To not compromise the investigation, we are limited in which information we can provide.”
Some students from the town hall attended the CORED meeting and asked about bringing their concerns directly to President Dr. Pamela Whitten.
“While I totally get the fact that everyone wants to go to the president, part of that is top down, a lot of that is grassroots,” Associate Vice President for Student Affairs and Dean of Students Dr. Michael Sanseviro said.
“I’m not saying we don’t want the president involved in these conversations too, but let’s make sure that we’re not losing a tremendous opportunity for us to be the change we want to see instead of always relying on the expectation that a senior administrator has to mandate that change,” Sanseviro continued.