Press Release: July 2005 -
OCA-GS Response to State Human Rights WSU Task Force Findings

The Human Rights Commission Task Force Report on WSU did nothing to change our belief that WSU is not a very good place for Asian Pacific Islanders. Although we found some serious flaws with the Task Force's investigation, and disagree with some its conclusions and recommendations, the report generally reaffirms that our belief that WSU has not served our community fairly or adequately. Furthermore, we remain convinced that (1) the repeated actions of the four male students towards the Asian student amounted to harassment (sex and/or racial), (2) the Student Conduct investigation was flawed, (3) the WSU President and his administration miserably handled “The Core Incident” and the student protest that followed, and (4) the racial climate at the institution is not good and (5) WSU needs to make race, ethnicity and gender issues top priority.

We are somewhat disappointed to find that the Task Force Report was very subjective and laden with some very disturbing perceptions -- including their treatment of the “Core Incident” as if it had little, if anything, to do with gender. We are also puzzled as to why the report did not recommend specific steps to address the issue of trust, which the Task Force identified as a key problem in its preliminary report. Moreover, much of the recommendations in the report are obvious steps that the any competent administration would know (and WSU probably knew). In short, we attribute minimal value to the report, which is unfortunate because we believed that the Task Force had the opportunity to get WSU moving on race, ethnicity and gender issues.

The “Core Incident” should have been a wake-up call to WSU that it needs to step up to diversity on the Pullman campus. But it appears more like “business as usual.” Nevertheless, OCA/GS remains open to working with WSU to improve diversity at that institution.

© 2005 OCA-Greater Seattle