Bemidji State responds to racist message written in residence hall

BEMIDJI — Bemidji State is responding to an incident that took place on Friday in an on-campus residence hall.

According to a letter sent on Monday evening to students and faculty at BSU from President John Hoffman, university officials were informed on Friday, March 15, of a racist message, which included the N-word, written on a bulletin board in Oak Hall.

"The individual — or individuals — who vandalized this bulletin board did so to intentionally harm our residents, and this behavior is unacceptable," Hoffman wrote. "Diversity, equity and inclusion are cornerstone values of this institution. One of the most important things we can do to demonstrate that we value all people is to create and maintain a safe community — particularly for our residential students, who should feel safe in their homes. These hateful incidents are not only harmful to the targeted people, they also damage our entire community."

He detailed that the university is taking the following steps to address the incident:

• Immediately upon receiving a report, Housing and Residential Life and Public Safety staff documented the incident and removed the racist graffiti. 
• Vice President Chrissy Downwind,   Vice President Travis Greene and  Associate Campus Diversity Officer Ashley Gomez  met with impacted students on Friday to offer supportive measures and to learn more about the incident. 
• Housing and Residential Life staff are holding a mandatory meeting for all residents on the floor where the racist message was found; staff from the Division of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion will be in attendance. 
• Discussions are underway about expanding these meetings to other residence halls.

"We are all responsible for helping ensure that each member of our community feels safe, welcomed and supported," Hoffman continued.

He listed these ways that students can do their part to ensure the safety and well-being of all:

• Be an upstander, not a bystander. If you see a situation developing that could cause harm to another member of our community, take a stand by speaking up or interrupting the situation.   
• Report incidents that occur on campus to Public Safety. In addition, for incidents that occur in the residence halls, you may also contact your floor’s RA or building’s assistant residence hall director and/or area director.  
• You can submit an “Equal Opportunity and Nondiscrimination Complaint” by visiting  bemidjistate.edu/report  or ntcmn.edu/report. This report can be made anonymously or privately. By filing a report when you witness hate or bias incidents, we can address and document them while providing student support resources and timely assistance.  
• If you have any information regarding this incident in Oak Hall, you are encouraged to report it using any of the methods listed above. 

"We will close this message to you by repeating that racist messages anywhere on campus, especially in our residence halls, are unacceptable," Hoffman left off. "We must all do better to ensure that our community is safe and supportive for all of our students."

This situation comes a year after several incidents occurred on campus, leading to the organization of a “Beaver Huddle” event to discuss hate-based incidents on the Bemidji State campus held the evening of March 2, 2023. The event was then interrupted by social media threats, resulting in class cancellations at BSU the following day.