A statue of the University of Mississippi’s first black student, James Meredith, was erected in 2006.

In February 2014, a noose hung around its neck.

Three freshman members of the Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity were kicked out, and the Ole Miss chapter was indefinitely suspended after speculation that they hung a noose and a former Georgia state flag containing a Confederate symbol on Meredith’s statue, according to a Feb. 22 Huffington Post article.

The university, the local police and the FBI are looking into making a case against the students, according to the article. Regardless of what these organizations decide, the national chapter of SigEp decided to take action.

“We won’t allow the actions of a few men to undermine the more than five decades of leadership this fraternity has demonstrated in the fight for racial equality and diversity on our college campuses,” Brian Warren, CEO of SigEp, said in a statement.

Despite these efforts, Charles Ross, director of the African American studies program at Ole Miss, said he’s “frustrated” with the university’s response thus far.

“Many individuals feel like this is a kind of cut and dry situation, that if students commit an act that is so intolerant, that is so racist in the message that it is sending, then they should not be on this campus,” Ross said.

Ole Miss has dealt with racist incidents throughout its history.  Kimberley Dandridge, the university’s first black female student body president who graduated last year, wrote a response to the incident on Feb. 21.

She chronicled various incidents of racism that she experienced as a student, but said that she doesn’t regret choosing Ole Miss for her undergraduate education.

“In my eyes (the University of Mississippi) was an academic institution with accolades parallel to those of the Ivy League universities,” Dandridge said in her response. “So, despite the negative comments, I enrolled and I look back four years later knowing it is a decision I would never undo.”

The rest of the responses from Ole Miss’ campus were varied, said Marvin King, an associate professor of political science and African-American studies.

“For a lot of faculty and staff, their reaction was ‘Oh no, here we go again.’ Something bad is happening on this campus and we can’t seem to fix some of these problems. Here we go again. And then you have some students who are like ‘What’s the big deal?  Why are people reacting this way?’” King said.

He added that the event greatly upset some students.

“You have lots of students who feel that this campus is not welcoming towards them…and that’s a problem,” King said.

King said the university has made great strides in recent years to become more diverse and offer more outlets for students to talk about diversity.

He mentioned changes in the orientation program and implementing a multicultural center.

“Its kind of a shame because we get a lot of negative headlines, which we deserve, but we are in the midst of implementing reforms so that we have less of this and we can better handle this when it does happen,” King said.

Ross said that despite an increase in diversity in recent years, the campus still has a long way to go.

“There’s been some progress. There also has been intense reaction to that progress and there continues to be reaction,” Ross said. “At this point we need some very, very strong action in terms of policy.”

Published on March 6, 2014 at 2:09 am

Contact: clmoran@syr.edu