All five Claremont College campuses canceled class Wednesday in
reaction to a hate crime incident Tuesday, in which a Claremont
McKenna professor’s car was broken into and vandalized.
The car was found in a campus parking lot with its tires
slashed, its windows broken, and its body covered with
spray-painted racial and religious slurs, said Evie Lazzarino, a
Claremont McKenna spokeswoman.
The day off from classes allowed students, faculty and staff to
come together and discuss the incident in a variety of forums,
Lazzarino added.
“It’s been a great day of discussion outside the
classroom setting,” Lazzarino added.
Total enrollment at the Claremont campuses is about 6,600.
Tuesday’s incident is the most recent in a series of
hate-related crimes that have occurred at the Claremont campuses,
said Robert Carpenter, a second-year government student at
Claremont McKenna.
The professor whose car was damaged attended a “Hate
Speech v. Free Speech” event Tuesday evening, during which
she denounced the use of derogatory and inflammatory speech, and it
was at this time that the car was damaged.
According to a statement released by the Claremont Police
Department, the incident is being investigated as a felonious hate
crime.
In conjunction with the police department’s actions, the
president of Claremont McKenna has announced a $10,000 reward for
anyone providing information leading to the identification of those
responsible, Lazzarino said.
About 400 students met Wednesday morning in front of the Office
of Black Student Affairs and took time to express their feelings
about the incident and hate crime in general, said Amit Thakkar, a
fourth-year philosophy, politics and economics student at Pomona
College.
“It was a remarkably constructive event, and issues that
people don’t generally discuss were talked about,”
Thakkar added.
Students and faculty met throughout the day, holding sit-ins,
rallies and informal meetings, using the opportunity to express
their fears, anger and anxieties, Carpenter said.
Over 2,000 students, faculty and staff gathered at a rally
Wednesday in a show of condemnation against all hate crimes.
The faculty at the Claremont campuses have also responded by
holding meetings to discuss the educators’ responses in such
situations.
“This is a huge issue, and it’s creating a
threatening environment. … Faculty wanted to come together and
discuss their role as educators,” said Thakkar, who was
present at a faculty forum.
Various hate-related incidents that have occurred across the
Claremont campuses include the burning of an 11-foot cross by a few
students in January, and the posters illustrating racial slurs were
put up across the Scripps College campus earlier this year.
Those college administration believed the earlier acts, though
heinous, fell within the realm of free speech, and thus did not
punish those responsible.
But Tuesday’s incident brings the situation to a new
level, and students, faculty and staff are taking a closer look at
the racism and intolerance evident on their campus, Thakkar
said.
“I would definitely say students are tired and frustrated.
… Because of last night’s incident, we might actually be
doing something about all this,” Thakkar added.