With recent discussions over the mishandling of race issues at the University of Missouri, or Mizzou, UNC-Wilmington students have taken into consideration what this situation means for our campus.

“I don’t want to call [Mizzou] a tragedy, but that’s kind of what it is,” said UNCW Senior Anastasia Forte. “It’s very unfortunate that these [racist incidents] are happening or that they are coming to light now.”

The recent racial tensions at the university were brought to the media’s attention  from a Facebook post made by Mizzou’s student body president, Payton Head.  In his post, Head expressed his disappointment with the university for their lack of handling race issues properly and for the harassment of minority students.

“If you want to fight for social change at Mizzou there are so many different outlets,” wrote Head. “Apply to be a Diversity Peer Educator, stop by any of our wonderful centers of social justice. Educate yourselves and others. Hold your family, friends, fraternity brothers and sorority sisters accountable. And if this post made you feel uncomfortable, GOOD! That means I’m doing my job. It’s time to wake up Mizzou.”

Some examples of bias incidents included Head himself being harassed by a group of people in a truck who threw racial slurs at him and an organization on campus known as the Legion of Black Collegians being called the n-word by “an inebriated white male at Traditions Plaza” while the group was practicing for a homecoming performance.

Soon after these incidents came to light, student formed protests and hunger strikes that called for the resignation of university president –Tim Wolfe — transpired as well as threats towards black students and “act(s) of hate,” as Mizzou Residence Hall Association President Billy Donley called it when a swastika made of feces appeared in a residence hall bathroom.

“When violent threats are made, that takes things to a different level,” said UNCW Sophomore and LGBTQIA Resource Office member Nada Merghani about the violent threats made towards black students. Merghani also felt that the administration of Mizzou should have combatted the racial incidents at the university, but failed to do so.

This criticism over the university not responding adequately to these incidents and the demands of protestors caused Wolfe and Chancellor R. Bowen Loftin to resign from their positions.

However, the university was not the only one handling the situation poorly. According to UNCW student Allison Manley the lack of response and media coverage has not been good. “On Facebook, the column of trending news centers on dogs and Wheel of Fortune and not on [race issues].”

These recent issues at Mizzou have sparked protests and signs of solidarity at other universities like Ithaca College, Yale University, Smith College, and Claremont McKenna College. So for UNCW, students see these incidents as an opportunity to progress as a society.

“The fact that the Upperman African American Cultural Center exists is a step towards diversity and inclusion,” said Forte. “There have been people who want to get rid of the center, and the fact that we still have [the Upperman Center] and Centro Hispano to support diversity and inclusion, along with the other diversity offices is a big step in the right direction, because UNCW is obviously a predominantly white school and having these safe spaces, even though anyone can come to them, for minority students is great.”

Though UNCW having the Upperman African American Cultural Center is “a step towards diversity and inclusion” according to Forte, some find fault with certain institutions at UNCW.

For instance, UNCW Sydney Burton wishes that the university has “more of a commitment to diversity” seeing as one of Sartarelli’s initiatives is to bring in more international students rather than focusing on minorities and how the university almost cut the track team last year, which adds diversity to the university. 

Merghani said “any issue where someone is being abused for their multiculturalism, I think that we all tend to stand together…we will support someone if they are being abused for being black or being Latino.”