On the evening of February 29, hundreds of students filled into the Florida State Union Ballroom for a town hall themed open dialogue discussion. Dozens of tables with conversation materials and resources covered the ballroom, students made nametags for themselves and settled into their seats, meeting and making new connections. This event, “A Conversation About Our Campus Community,” was led by the Center for Leadership and Social Change and cultural agencies across campus, and was sparked in response to an alleged hazing allegation against Tau Kappa Epsilon (TKE). The Lambda-Iota chapter of TKE was suspended after a 2015 graduate, and member of the fraternity, reached out about a previous racially charge incident that occurred in 2013.
According to his recollection of the event, members were required to participate in an event called “Old South,” in which pledges were painted in Blackface, served drinks to members, and were to act as though they were slaves. Following a number of fraternity members’ expulsions, the organization was expelled by the Dean of Students. The overwhelming student body reactions to this occurrence, as well as a record of numerous other racially charged incidents at the FSU campus, encouraged both administration and registered student organizations to pair together for a forum discussion.
Courtesy: FSU Center for Leadership and Social Change
Faculty and student leaders started off the evening by setting the tone and parameters for the discussion that would ensue later that evening. Dr. Mary Coburn, the Vice President for Student Affairs, gave an introduction as the first speaker of the evening, saying “…everyone is here because they care about this topic…let’s assume best intentions…we are allies together to make Florida State better… I look forward to being part of that conversation with you.” It was clear that faculty not only wanted a fruitful and eventful dialogue, but also wanted to create a space where students could share their emotions, experiences and opinions all the while active listening and understanding would be at the core of the discussion.
Facilitators of the evening’s event, Carolyn Harris, a staff member within the Student Government Association (SGA), and Miguel Hernández, Associate Director within the Develop-Based Initiatives with the Center for Leadership and Social Change, outlined the timeline of dialogue in three stages: a small group discussion at each table facilitated by pre-chosen faculty and students, a medium-sized group discussion where tables of the same category joined together to answer the “now what” question posed to the students that evening and lastly, a large-sized family orientated dialogue in which students and faculty throughout the union ballrooms could share their experiences from previous group discussions. As the evening drew on, students spoke out about their personal experiences and emotions towards the hazing event and the dialogue themselves. Many minority students spoke up about the fact that this hazing incident, though seemingly isolated, is simply one example of a history of racially charged incidents at Florida State.
Courtesy: WCTV
Near the end of the large group dialogue, microphones were passed across the room for students to raise their concerns about racial injustices and minority issues at Florida State, as well as brainstorming ideas for how the university can make changes at the institutional level. Derrick Scott was one of those students.
2015 Homecoming Chief and a member of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity Incorporated, a Greek organization within the National Panhellenic Council, Scott took an opportunity, like many other students that evening, to voice his opinion: “There needs to be a council or committee where the representative student leaders of this campus who actually have the initiative to perform this [your student body president, your NPHC president] any leaders on this campus to actually sit down at the table with your university leaders…to say ‘As a student, I’ve been facing this for the last four years, I want to see a change, and I will not tolerate if anything less than that happens- that is a tangible solution.’”
As the dialogue continued, students raised questions to the administration about increasing funding for minority student agencies, changing the freshman curriculum to include more diverse class offerings, as well as integrating spaces for agencies both Greek, non-Greek and culturally based to converge with each other, and finally on an individual level, holding oneself and others accountable for witnessing or partaking in racist and microagressive issues. As stated by the administration in the beginning of the event, the students would not necessarily be leaving the open dialogue feeling “warm and fuzzy” or with one concrete set of solutions or a unanimous change of heart or opinion.
Dr. Laura Osteen, a staff member at FSU and the Director for the Center of Leadership and Social Change, closed out the dialogue with inspirational words and a resultative tone that evoked an expected change of action when she stated, “If you’re on the scale that’s anywhere connected to denial, guilt, distance or ‘it’s just not me,’ I need you to lean in, I need you to recognize that I hope that we are as nice as we can be to each other, but nice isn’t gonna cut it. We are taught intentionally that because of our identities we have privilege and because of our identities we are oppressed…. we must be better together… when we see it and we call each other out and we name it. ‘Wow that was racist, and say wow that was sexist, wow that was homophobic– let’s do something about it.’ I hope tonight you got practice in talking to someone else, because only by talking to someone different from you will we move forward in this work.”
Leaving the event, there was an overall feeling of both a charge to make a change, educate and continue dialogue – but not ending there. As the crowd dispersed we can hope that this dialogue continues on an individual level, that the administration looks to the suggestions and ideas of the student, and that as Florida State community we can answer the “now what” question.