If you are not aware of what happened:
A student became agitated over some of the course content during an afternoon class period, and was vocally abusive, disrespectful and intolerant to the instructor. Several discriminatory statements about the instructor's perceived religious beliefs were made. The student then targeted another student in the class and engaged in racially hostile verbal abuse directed at that student. The conflict took place in front of a large number of witnesses, including college staff who called security. The conflict ended when the student who had initiated the conflict pushed the other student; the other student hit him back. All witnesses agreed that the second student acted in self-defense.
The aggressor has been dealt with by campus administration.
Additionally in the last 2 weeks, it has been reported that students have been disrespectful of a person with a disability on campus, and also we have found a DEC flyer defaced with homophobic and racist slurs.
If you or your students would like a way to take some positive action in the aftermath of these events, one thing you might do is sign our "Not On Our Campus" pledge. We have collected over 100 pledge cards at this time; the DEC Team is continuing to make "Not On Our Campus" buttons as well. Stop by if you'd like either of these, or print a pledge card to put on your office door or in your classrooms. It would be very effective to have these pledges all around campus, so please feel free to distribute them and post where appropriate!