{"id":17672,"date":"2021-04-10T11:43:56","date_gmt":"2021-04-10T19:43:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/?p=17672"},"modified":"2021-04-10T11:51:34","modified_gmt":"2021-04-10T19:51:34","slug":"heritage-programming-and-activities-committee-protests-racial-injustice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/heritage-programming-and-activities-committee-protests-racial-injustice\/","title":{"rendered":"Heritage Programming and Activities Committee protests racial injustice"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

HPAC holds Western leadership responsible for silence against hate crimes towards Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders<\/em><\/p>\n

Sydney Carpenter<\/strong> | News Editor <\/span><\/p>\n

Since 2020, there has been a 149% increase in hate crimes towards people within the Asian American and Pacific Islander community, according to the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism.<\/span><\/p>\n

Student leaders from the Heritage Programming and Activities Committee were the first to take to social media last Wednesday. Citing Western\u2019s leaders, including University Housing and University President Rex Fuller, HPAC found their silence around hate and discrimination towards AAPI community members disheartening, frustrating and disappointing. After a Feb. 28 hate crime reported by the Collegian towards a Willamette University student and the March 16 mass shooting in Atlanta, Georgia killing a total of eight people, six of them being Asian American women, HPAC expected some acknowledgment or condemnation of AAPI hate.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201c<\/span>We as your student representatives (refuse) to stay silent,\u201d said HPAC\u2019S March 31 Instagram post. \u201cWe stand in solidarity with all of our fellow residents and (will) continue to actively advocate and fight for our voices to be heard. Black lives (still) matter, and that will not be ignored or pushed aside.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Within the comment section of the post, University Housing was the first to reply with \u201cLove this!!!!\u201d with students replying the response was not enough or asking why they had not made an official statement of their own. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThis campus has an atmosphere that creates silenced violence among students, especially student leaders,\u201d said HPAC members. \u201cThe current administration flaunts instances where they did the bare minimum and hides instances where they exhibited gross insensitivity, and where they took the credit for things that others did. ÀÖ²¥ÊÓƵ’s administration must dedicate itself to reevaluating its responses and responsibilities towards its students, the staff, and the future.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

A day later, University Housing sent out an email to students living on campus and made an official statement via their Instagram page. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cHate has no place here,\u201d said the April 1 Instagram post. \u201cUniversity Housing stands with all of our students in condemning the recent violent racist attacks perpetrated against the Asian American community.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Housing \u201capplauded\u201d the student voices that had taken to social media and thanked students for challenging them to do better. Following HPAC and Housing, other university leadership groups released statements of their own, including Student Engagement, ASWOU and the Student Activities Board.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Western Howl reached out to Strategic Communication and Marketing last week, inquiring whether administration intended to make a response to the discrimination and violent acts towards people in with the AAPI community. MarCom replied stating the university marketing team published an <\/span>email<\/span><\/a> sent out by Provost and Vice President of Academic Affairs Rob Winningham to university staff only on March 18 in response to the Atlanta, Georgia shootings. Originally the statement was not intended to be representative of the entire university. However, as of April 6 an email under the Provost address has been sent out to students apologizing for the inadequacy of the original statement released.<\/span><\/p>\n

Although HPAC acknowledged other statements that had been made, the committee is dedicated to holding the university <\/span>to its promise of inclusion and its pride of diversity.<\/span><\/p>\n

“The inaction of campus leadership has caused the student-body to feel frustration, fear, and isolation,\u201d said HPAC. \u201cAs student leaders, we acknowledged the experiences of others and ourselves and worked to push towards change that will benefit the future. Incoming students must be willing to learn as individuals how they can make a difference, challenge themselves to critically examine societal norms, even when it’s uncomfortable and push to compassionately advocate for all.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Going forward, HPAC says it intends to not stop until the university acknowledges and fulfills its promises of fighting against injustice, and prioritizes inclusion and diversity.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cBoth AJ Owens, my co-adviser, and I are proud of our students for speaking out against injustices and violence against \u2026 AAPI communities,\u201d said Heritage Resident Director and HPAC Advisor Michael Carroll. \u201cWe\u2019re grateful to have student leaders who are thinking of other students\u2019 needs and who advocate for support for all of our students, especially those from marginalized identities and backgrounds.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Contact the author at scarpenter18@mail.wou.edu<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

HPAC holds Western leadership responsible for silence against hate crimes towards Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders<\/p>\n

Sydney Carpenter | News Editor<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1094,"featured_media":17649,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[979,980,977,976,143,975,974,978,683,981,146,145],"class_list":["post-17672","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-asian","tag-asian-american","tag-heritage-programming-and-activities-committee","tag-hpac","tag-news","tag-protest","tag-protests","tag-racial-injustice","tag-student","tag-student-leaders","tag-sydney","tag-sydney-carpenter"],"modified_by":"The Western Howl","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17672","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1094"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17672"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17672\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17649"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17672"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17672"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17672"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}