Feds doing assessment of racism at Northern

The U.S. Justice Department is conducting an assessment of the racial climate at Montana State University-Northern, two months after a racial comment sparked controversy and made the campus the subject of statewide media attention.

Rachel Dean, chief of staff for Northern Chancellor Greg Kegel, said Kegel reached out to DOJ’s Community Relations Service within the last couple of months. She said the outreach is connected with questions about the treatment of Native American students on campus.

Dean said the goal of the assessment is to figure out the campus climate is and how to go about improving it.

The Service’s website says it is the “peacemaker” for community conflicts and tensions that arise from differences of race, color, national origin, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion and disability.   

Rosa Salamanca, a senior conciliation specialist with the service offered to conduct an assessment of the campus and Kegel agreed, Dean said.

Salamanca said she could not comment on the story and directed all questions to the service’s press office in Washington. The office had not responded by printing dealing this morning to requests for comment.

Dean said the assessment is being done to get an outsider’s view of the situation and make sure “the entire campus has the tools they need to have difficult conversations about complex issues.”

Kegel has been in direct contact with Salamanca, she said.

Dean said Salamanca did ask Kegel if she could make some calls around campus and he said she could. Dean added that findings will be based on those interviews.

Race relations at Northern have received statewide attention since an incident in April when a student heard a comment that made her feel threatened and was perceived as racist.

The student went to Northerns dean of students, who investigated the incident. He determined that the student who made the comment presented no threat of physical violence, but that student was not allowed to attend classes on campus for the remainder of the semester and could not enter most buildings on campus but was allowed to use the campus gymnasium and remain on Northern’’s football team.

Some students, campus faculty and people within nearby communities said they believe the administration handled the situation poorly and it was a sign of a culture of institutional racism at Northern.

One of the people who said that, longtime English professor John Snider, said he was interviewed by Solomanaza, who asked him questions about race on campus.

The Sweetgrass Society, a student organization that represents Native American students on campus, held a community meeting last month to think of ways to reach out to the broader community.

A meeting to discuss the issue of racism had been scheduled for Thursday but has been postponed and will be held in mid-to late July, said Norton Pease, chair of Northern’s College of Education, Arts, Sciences and Nursing.