Davies condemns recent racial incidents at Board of Trustees meeting
Wheeler Hall incident involving Snapchat occurred Feb. 11
President Robert Davies gives his report on the university to the Board of Trustees on Feb. 14 in the Bovee University Center President's Conference Room.
At the Feb. 14 Central Michigan University Board of Trustees formal session, President Robert Davies condemned a recent racial incident that occurred in Wheeler Hall this week.
Davies opened the board meeting by addressing the incident which he was first alerted of during a Trustee-Student Liaison Committee meeting on Feb. 13. At the committee meeting, Sparta junior Australyah Coleman, president of Central’s chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), described a Snapchat post that was published Feb. 11 at an annual date auction in Wheeler Hall. The post showed a male student with a caption “prepare to buy myself at the slave auction.”
Davies condemned this incident, stating that the CMU community does not condone or tolerate words based on racism, hatred, misogyny or transphobia.
He said members of residential hall staff, Office of Civil Rights and Institutional Equity and the Office of Institutional Diversity are following up and addressing the situation accordingly.
"We as a community have made gains in our diversity and inclusion efforts," Davies said. "However, this latest incident, and the events surrounding it, demonstrate we still have work to do."
Davies urged CMU to continue discussion to ensure all members of the community have the support to reach their full potential.
"In doing so," he said, "we will be woke."
