On behalf of the University, and its faculty, staff, and students, I apologize to those who may feel vulnerable because of this incident. There was a very intentional reason for not releasing that statement immediately. The subsequent campus conversations and meetings, though painful, have been a valuable learning experience for us all and a reminder that complacency is unacceptable. Our outrage must now be transformed into action. We must pause and reflect on how to rid our campus of bias and prejudice.
Racism is the result of ignorance and fear of the unknown.
We must increase our efforts to educate those students currently on our campus and continue our efforts to recruit a more diverse faculty and student body. We will only be successful when diversity is not a goal, but a way of life on this campus. At the Town Meeting on June 3, these demands and the University response were discussed. A university cannot financially compensate a student for incidents over which it has no control. A university cannot establish such a precedent for reimbursement - even in such an unconscionable situation such as this.