Does the higher education world still need to talk about campus climate with campuses shut down? Student advocates say yes.
On Friday, Diverse hosted an online discussion titled “Calling Out Xenophobia, Racism and Intolerance During the COVID-19 Crisis,” moderated by editor-at-large Dr. Jamal Watson. As campus resources and classes moved online, so did harmful biases, panelists noted, calling for fresh approaches from colleges and universities.
“This is a moment to strengthen our solidarity in and across racial groups,” said Dr. Charles H.F. Davis III, assistant professor of clinical education at the University of Southern California. “This is an opportunity to forge together even stronger as a community to fight the rising tide of White supremacy on campus.”
Speakers emphasized the need to address Zoombombing, where users bombard remote classes with racist messages. Asian students in particular have been targeted for online harassment, Davis said.
He advised universities to create protocols for faculty to respond to these incidents so they’re not caught off guard, and in turn, encouraged faculty to take all the necessary steps to prevent them from happening – password protecting Zoom classes, having a co-host monitor chat discussions and removing the screen sharing feature.
Beyond that, faculty need to establish clear policies about speech in the virtual classroom, outlined in their syllabi, while keeping an eye out for “subtler forms” of discrimination like “cyberbullying and exclusion,” said Dr. Leandra Parris, assistant professor of school psychology at the College of William & Mary.
But panelists argued that promoting equity during the coronavirus isn’t just about calling out new forms of racism in the classroom but also acknowledging the disparate effects of the pandemic on underprivileged students.
