Although diversity on campus is now at its highest level since Elon University became an institution, discrimination has not disappeared, and the campus community's commitment to responding to discrimination is nothing new.

When Elon College's marching band stopped at a restaurant in Raleigh on the way back from a football game in 1963, the restaurant owner told Glenda Phillips, the first black student to attend Elon College, that she was not allowed to enter. The next day, former president Earl Danieley called then- Governor Terry Sanford to report what had happened. Sanford immediately sent a human resources worker to the restaurant owner to rebuke him on behalf of the state of North Carolina.

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"That was all I knew to do — to report it to the highest man in the state," Danieley said.

In light of two recent incidents in which Elon University students were subjected to racial slurs while walking on and nearby campus, the university has responded with a forum, public and private meetings, letters sent via email to the undergraduate student body, a special College Coffee and the distribution of Not on our Campus stickers.

The first of the two incidents occurred around 9 p.m. Sept. 7, when junior Brenna Humphries said she was forced to run to get out of the path of a car speeding toward her as she crossed N. O'Kelley Avenue. Humphries said one of several young men in the vehicle, which she described as a silver BMW, shouted a derogatory racial slur at her before driving off.

A second incident occurred Sept. 10, when someone in a passing car yelled the same racial slur to a student walking on Williamson Avenue.

Regarding the first case, President Leo Lambert told students during the Sept. 15 SGA meeting that the university strongly believes the car's driver and passengers are within the 18-25 year-old age range, although it is unclear whether they are Elon students. Campus Safety and Police is actively pursuing an investigation of the incident, which includes interviewing students whose vehicles match the description Humphries provided and analyzing hours of video footage from parking lots.

Lambert said Campus Safety and Police believe the driver of the vehicle in the second incident is not an Elon student, as the individual appeared to be much older.

"This is an open campus," Lambert said at Thursday's SGA meeting. "Anyone can come onto the Elon campus. We're not a gated or walled community, and I think this was some idiot driving through. And there are idiots out there."

A long-term response to an ongoing issue

Despite the university's response in trying to address the recent incidents and inform the student body that these incidents are unacceptable, some students and faculty said they felt the university was negligent in ensuring that resources were in place to ensure future occurrences are handled properly.

"There are a lot of places you can go to report these incidents on campus, but no direct path, no one person to contact or direct way for a student's fears to be resolved," said senior Raafe Purnsley, vice president of Spectrum, Elon's queer-straight alliance. "If our policy on discrimination isn't helping people come forward or talk about it, we have to think of another."

At a special College Coffee Sept. 13, a group of students responded to the university's Not on our Campus" message by asking Lambert questions at the end of his prepared speech on diversity. The group of students, part of the newly formed Now What? movement, shouted out questions regarding how future incidents of discrimination would be handled and whether an office w o u l d be created to encourage students to report these incidents and to receive counseling andsupport.

"We need someone available to translate the legal jargon during those situations so the victim doesn't feel overwhelmed – especially if they don't understand what's being asked in the legal process," said senior Candice Blacknall, the first student to speak up and ask Lambert a question at College Coffee.

Blacknall initially helped mobilize the Now What? movement, which has since joined forces with the Not on our Campus campaign started by SGA.

The university is responding to faculty and students' requests for a center to help students report and deal with situations of harassment and discrimination.

At the SGA meeting Sept. 15, Lambert announced that an incident team would be formed on campus to serve as a center to report incidents of harassment at Elon, a team of advocates to show students potential options for investigating their cases and a place of support and reassurance for victims of discrimination.

"We want to have a place that you can go, a number that you can call," Lambert said. "Somebody will be your advocate, much like we have now with the sexual response system so you aren't left to negotiate if you're feeling distressed or unsettled about what's happened."

In an email sent to undergraduate students and faculty Sept. 16, Smith Jackson, vice president and dean of Student Life, said the incident team would receive general training and would consist of members with training in specific areas of expertise, such as racial or LGBTQ harassment.

A centralized website for the incident team, which will be coordinated with the current threat assessment team, is scheduled to be available for students to access by the beginning of the spring semester. Incident team members will be in place at that time too, Jackson said.

Diversity: a cause of division on campus

Though the Now What? movement's efforts to stand against discrimination were not intended to be exclusive of any race, Blacknall said she admits that many students may actually have felt alienated by the group and are hesitant to join.

"I think because people thought it's a black thing, people were fired up about the incidents but didn't know who their allies were," Blacknall said. "People saw black faces and thought, 'No one like me is there. Do I belong here?'"

The movement, Blacknall said, is not just about racial discrimination but encompasses every form of discrimination.

"It happened to be black students this time, but I'm not doubting that there are students from other backgrounds who are experiencing it," Blacknall said. "To isolate it to just being a racial issue – that would be ignorant."

Purnsley said many of the problems related to discrimination have yet to be addressed by the campus as a whole because some people are afraid to get involved.

"When you come to these events, people think 'this is for black people,' or 'this is for gay people — I don't need to go and I'm not welcome,'" Purnsley said. "Because of how it initially happened as a race issue, the 'Now What?' movement got labeled as black students on campus being upset."

Blacknall said though some people believe the recent incidents of racial slurs happened by chance, these types of occurrences are not unheard of for members of the black student body.

"A lot of people have the impression that this is the first time it happened," Blacknall said. "It may seem like it went from zero to 100, but there's been a lot of steps between zero and 100."

Prudence Layne, associate professor of English, said she believes that experiences of racial discrimination are not out of the ordinary for Elon's minority students, faculty and staff, though these situations are not widely discussed.

"We have this idea that Elon is such a pure, angelic place, but these incidents really tarnish any university's reputation," Layne said. "Change is not going to happen quickly, through one strategy alone or through one group of people. It's going to be hard, ongoing and come with clear leadership."

One of the problems with the way the university has handled diversity, Blacknall said, is over-using the word "diversity," and making it an adjective that excludes many Elon students.

"We throw that word around so much, so that people who are heterosexual, white and Christian feel that they aren't diverse," Blacknall said. "You have the diverse and the non-diverse here at Elon, because that's how Elon has made it without realizing it."

Another hindrance to truly seeing diversity on campus, Blacknall said, is the Multicultural Center's lack of mixed culture. She said the Multicultural Center, which primarily consists of black students, should not serve as a substitute for a black cultural center.

"I think we need two centers," Blacknall said. "We should have a black resource center and a Multicultural Center that's really multicultural. The two need to be separated."

Alongside other plans to promote dialogue about diversity on campus, students from the Not on our Campus movement have organized an event to remind the student body to continue to stand against discrimination of all forms.

The walk, called "Each 1 Teach 1," will be held Friday, Sept. 30 and is similar to the concept of "Take Back the Night," Elon's rally against sexual violence. Blacknall said the event is open to all members of the student body, and campus organizations are encouraged to participate together.

"The kid in the BMW had four friends," she said. "Imagine if we have hundreds of students walking. We're going to give the impression that this is not the place for discrimination. Nothing is more powerful than telling a person 'absolutely no,' especially when there are 300 people saying no."