By Megan Hansen and Ben Adler
Two recent incidents of vandalism at UC Davis have prompted students to call for mandatory, campus-wide diversity training. That’s on top of five similar acts on other UC campuses in the last month. Capital Public Radio’s Ben Adler reports.
Two recent incidents of vandalism at UC Davis have prompted students to call for mandatory, campus-wide diversity training. That’s on top of five similar acts on other UC campuses in the last month. Capital Public Radio’s Ben Adler reports.
The latest offense involved the spray-painting of derogatory words on the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Resource Center late Friday night. A couple of weeks earlier, a swastika was drawn on a Jewish student’s dorm room door. Sherry Atkinson is the director of the UC Davis LGBT center. She says economic uncertainty might be a source of the animosity.
“It’s sad, I think there’s a lot of fear, I think there’s a lot of misunderstanding, and ignorance, and people are lashing out in different ways and targeting under-represented communities.”
Student government Vice President Chris Dietrich says the events demonstrate the need for more diversity training on campus.
“Education is something that is very important. I know there’s people here on our campus and our student government, we’re trying to push for education.”
The LGBT center held a campus meeting on Monday to discuss ideas to prevent future problems. UC Davis Chancellor Linda Katehi was among those in attendance. Students are compiling ideas from the meeting into a proposal for the administration.