Students launch new campaign aimed to open progressive discussions about race, culture on campus

More than 200 people across campus visited the Memorial Union quad throughout Friday to show their support for open discussions to promote unity and combat hate speech.

The “I, Too, Am OSU” campaign started with late-night discussions among various students. The Friday gathering came after an email sent out through Oregon State University’s administrators, which acknowledged a series of racist graffiti found on campus. One such message was in a bathroom located in Kidder Hall.

“These behaviors do not reflect who we are,” OSU President Ed Ray said in the email. “Therefore, we will not let people who engage in these terrible and senseless acts control us or persist in their actions.”

Friday’s event started around 11 a.m. and extended to 3 p.m. Students and campus community members were encouraged to stop by, write their story or supporting statement on a piece of paper with the #Itooamosu hashtag and have their picture taken. The collection of photos will later be used for a documentary to be released at the beginning of spring term.

The “I, Too, Am OSU” Facebook page currently has more than 570 likes.

Justin McDaniels, one of the students who organized the event, said he didn’t appreciate the university waiting to open conversations until the second incident of graffiti was discovered last week.

“I thought that was kind of inappropriate,” McDaniels said.

McDaniels worked together with Alex Graham, Jeffrey Tsang, Meleani Bates and other students to come up with a plan of action. The initial conversations, which took place Thursday night around 10 p.m., would result in various social media pages and Friday’s table, which was devoted to the cause.

McDaniels said it was vital to facilitate dialogue about micro-aggressions and negative perceptions that minorities deal with.

In one instance, McDaniels said a professor of his said they disliked Martin Luther King Jr. Day without realizing the impact her words had.

“It was because it was inconvenient to her teaching schedule,” McDaniels said. “Who says something like that?”

Bates said the overall effort represented how student voices can go a long way in a short amount of time.

“It shows you how powerful students can be once we get together and decide we want change,” she said.

Like many others, the negative messages discovered on campus these past few weeks affected Bates and other students.

“Things like this wouldn’t happen if we genuinely invested in one another,” Bates said.

Michael DeGarmo, an OSU student, said he heard about some of the incidents on campus this week from a few friends in the MU dining hall.

DeGarmo said it was frustrating to still see such acts happening in the world and society today.

With assistance from the Memorial Union Program Council, the new group will meet again Monday at 10 a.m. to post papers from Friday’s event inside the MU lounge. McDaniels and others will provide additional materials for students who want to add to the collage.

Anyone with additional information regarding the graffiti is urged to notify the Oregon State Police or OSU Department of Public Safety at 541-737-3010.

Sean Bassinger

Higher education reporter

managing@dailybarometer.com