There is not a student on campus who is unaware of the events of the protest and resulting incidents on September 23, but there are several who may not completely understand the task of the Independent Review Committee (IRC).
The committee’s report outlines what happened on that day in detail, citing both students and staff that were involved. The IRC was a completely separate entity from the university. The committee chose who it believed would be best to interview for the report, and there was no university involvement in the report.
“The value of having an independent group is that there is no steering of them towards a politically expedient set of answers,” said Christopher Wells, Vice President of Student life.
“Following that hearing on the campus, the committee determined that we need to learn more and hear more. We established a confidential email account, and there was a considerable amount of email that came in,” said IRC spokesman Myra Shelby in a press conference on March 14, 2016.
The IRC set up this anonymous email account in order to hear from students who had been affected since it would be impossible to hear from everyone in person.
“Many of the individuals that we hear from through the interviews, as well as through the hearing, as well through emails, expressed deep concern that DePauw is a place where racism exists,” Shelby said.
The largest portion of the report contains four concrete recommendations for the university to implement next year and in the following years.
“Both Dean McCoy and Vice President Wells will be expected to offer their recommended changes before the end of this academic year, and Dean McCoy, as President, will lead their implementation,” President Brian Casey said via email.
The four recommendations were picked to ideally create a more accepting campus climate, both within the university and in the Greencastle community.
“What we heard was a very complex set of concerns that went far beyond those questions, and developed into concerns about the climate on the campus from the standpoint of how students of color, students of LGBTQ status, immigration status and different identities felt on the campus," Shelby said. "Several students genuinely expressed their pain and hurt that the campus is not as inclusive as they’d like it to be."
The first recommendation requires creating a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Greencastle.
“That’s something that the university is committed to working with Greencastle to put together,” Wells said. “We already have an MOU of understanding with Greencastle on some other fronts, so it ought not to be too difficult to be put together.” The MOU will give both public safety and city police more specific jobs in order to avoid the confusion that happened the day of the event.
The second recommendation is to to create a committee that would discuss both community and university concerns.
“Dean Mark McCoy, in his new role as president-designate, has met with the mayor, the city attorney, the city council and the Greencastle Police to begin the steps needed to develop both the MOU the report recommends, as well as the joint committee also suggested by the IRC members,” Casey said. The committee will consist of community members as well as students and faculty to ideally represent everyone’s interests.
The third recommendation is that new student orientation will be implemented for first-years next year.
“I think [Director of Public Safety] Angie Nally has some terrific ideas, including ones she’s had in the past, but there may be more of an audience for now of connecting on-going students with police,” Wells said.
The report was unclear about any requirements for older students to get the same type of opportunities to learn about Greencastle, but Student Life is planning on hosting more events for upperclassmen.
“We will be working to get students better informed and educated about law enforcement issues and to give them opportunities to speak to their own concerns on that front,” Wells said.
The fourth recommendation is to develop an on-call system for the university. While an on-call system already exists in Student Life, the IRC found that so many people were searching to help or be helped after the September 23 events that the best course of action would be to expand the on-call system.
“This report represents one tile in a mosaic, and I believe this can be helpful to us if we use it in part of a disciplined committed effort over the coming years to be the kind of inclusive community we want to be. It’s not and was never going to be the thing that would cure all of our community woes,” Wells said.
Currently, all of the recommendations are in the early stages of action. The new student orientation and the increase in contact with police will be completed for next year, but the others are still developing. Wells said the university takes the IRC report seriously and plans on using the recommendations to its advantage.
“I think it is very important that we use this report to shape the university’s strategy and try to make sure that what happened on the 23rd never happens again,” Wells said. “But that’s only one piece of a larger project, which is to be a place where the community feels constructively connected and feels like an actual community and feels responsive to the needs of its constituents.”