For the third time this semester, the Syracuse University community is responding to a major bias-related incident, this time involving a student who dressed in blackface on Halloween.

Department of Public Safety officers investigated reports Friday night of a bias-related incident involving a State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry student dressed in a racially insensitive Halloween costume, university spokesman Kevin Morrow said.

The student had dressed as a ‘Pacific Islander’ by covering himself in dark body makeup, wearing a grass skirt and carrying a wooden staff, Morrow said. The student was sighted on Marshall Street, on the SU Quad, at a house on the corner of Henry and Standart streets and on College Place.

Public Safety officers responded to complaints from students and approached the student as he was walking on College Place, Morrow said. The student was taken into the Public Safety office, where officers photographed the costume and questioned the student, he added.

The SUNY-ESF student affairs staff is addressing the case, Morrow said.

Becca Johnston, a senior political science and Spanish major, said she saw the student while she was standing in front of Faegan’s Cafe & Pub on South Crouse Avenue. The student appeared to be drunk and actually looked black at a distance, she said.

‘I was a little surprised and obviously disgusted,’ Johnston said.

Johnston said she was shocked by the student’s costume, especially in light of previous incidents involving blackface costumes. In May 2002, a student and Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity member went to several Marshall Street bars dressed in blackface. The fraternity was put on interim suspension and the student was penalized by Judicial Affairs.

SU’s black community and other students have mobilized in response to the incident and are calling for action from the administration. More than 60 concerned students, including members of the Student African-American Society, met Monday night in Maxwell Auditorium to discuss the incident.

Some of the students criticized the administration’s ‘lukewarm’ response to bias-related incidents and brainstormed ideas that they felt would strengthen the university’s policy. Among the measures discussed was the establishment of a cultural education core requiring students to take a non-Western history course, the modification of the freshman orientation program to include a cultural sensitivity training session and institution of a zero-tolerance policy which would expel students involved in bias-related incidents.

The student leading the discussion mentioned the possibility of taking some action involving the events of Parents Weekend.

A student in the audience said students needed to take a more confrontational approach to tackle the issue of bias. His suggestion that anybody who spots a person dressed in blackface again should ‘just whoop his ass’ was met with applause by some members of the audience.

Jamar Hooks, an SAS member and a junior political science, sociology and policy studies major, said SAS is still formulating a response to the incident. He is personally in favor of implementing some form of peer-diversity training.

‘We’re living in the 21st century,’ he said. ‘Racism should not be tolerated at an institution of higher education.’

Published on November 3, 2003 at 12:00 pm