FGCU faculty seeks policy on hate speech

FORT MYERS, Fla. Faculty members at Florida Gulf Coast University are calling for a clear hate speech policy in the wake of multiple explicit messages left around campus.

FGCU president Dr. Wilson Bradshaw responded in two separate letters on Wednesday, calling the messages “unacceptable,” and put the onus on faculty to come up with solutions.

Last week dozens of posters appeared on campus promoting white supremacy, reading “White Guilt: Free Yourself From Cultural Marxism.” They also listed a website for a group that considers themselves part of the “alt-right,” a white nationalist movement.

Nine faculty members expressed their concerns about the fliers in a letter to president Bradshaw and other high-ranking university officials. It’s the latest in a string of similar incidents across campus.

One of the letters Bradshaw sent in response strongly condemns the messages and encourages the faculty to create an “inclusive and respectful campus.”

 

Bradshaw wrote a second letter specifically directed to the faculty members who voiced their concerns last week.

Bradshaw referenced his response to earlier incidents. A racial slur was written on a whiteboard outside of a professor’s office in October. The words “KILL (N-word)” were written in capital letters above a drawing that depicted a stick figure being hung from a tree. Another message that read “Noose Tying 101” was spotted on a library whiteboard less than a month later. And in November someone keyed a slur for homosexuals onto a student’s vehicle.

Students held a protest in October in response to the racial slur drawing. They hoped it would encourage the school to adopt severe repercussions for hateful language and mandatory lessons about racism.

“I just heard a lot of people murmuring the sentiments that Trump has repeated over and over again, emboldened some of the racist things we’ve seen on campus here,” student Vanessa Villaverde, who was at the October protest, said Wednesday. “It’s brought out an emboldened bad crowd.”

Students hope that change will happen soon.

“I think they just want it to die down a little, but obviously it’s not going away,” student Lauren Diego said.

The identity of the person or people responsible for leaving the messages is unclear.