The recent defacement of a student’s dorm room door with slurs targeting their race and gender identity is more than an isolated act of cruelty — it reflects a disturbing national trend that demands immediate attention and action on our campus and in our community.
On our own campus, the Record has documented racist graffiti on the Soldiers Monument near Griffin, an anti-Black slur scrawled on a chalkboard in Sawyer Library, and slurs written in dust on cars in the Whitman Street parking garage. Last fall, students reported racial slurs shouted from cars along Route 2. Since 2019, the College has reported 11 hate crimes under the Clery Act that targeted race, sexual orientation, sexual identity, or gender. These reports capture only incidents that meet the legal definition of a hate crime, not the broader spectrum of more common incidents that corrode trust and safety on campus. These campus-level incidents show that the threat of hate — particularly in spaces where students should feel safest — remains real and urgent.
These incidents cause tangible harm to students. Hate incidents can inflict physical danger, psychological trauma, social isolation, educational setbacks, and institutional damage to the campus community. The threat is real and immediate. As faculty, we have a responsibility to respond.
National data tell us that what’s happening on our campus is part of a larger crisis. The FBI recorded nearly 11,700 hate crimes in 2024, one of the highest totals ever. From 2018 to 2022, schools — including colleges and universities — were the third most common site for hate crimes. Individuals were most frequently targeted for their race, though incidents targeting LGBTQIA+ people — especially transgender and nonbinary students — surged, with transphobic hate crimes rising 40 percent from 2021 to 2022. Disability-based discrimination is also escalating: The U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) received 22,687 discrimination complaints in fiscal year 2024, the highest ever recorded, and an 18-percent increase from the previous record in 2023.
The statistics bear out in campus headlines: Cornell University reported nine hate crimes in 2023, up from just one in 2022. By the first half of 2024, the OCR had at least six open investigations into Montana State University’s handling of discrimination reports — including failure to respond to reports of sex- and race-based harassment, disability-based concerns, and retaliation against LGBTQIA+ student advocates.
Because the harms are real and severe, strong protections are essential. The College does have a clear policy: Our Non-Discrimination, Harassment, and Sexual Misconduct Policy prohibits mistreatment based on race, color, sex, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, ancestry, disability, and other protected characteristics. These policies matter, but policies alone are not enough. As the authors of this piece, we are committed to acting as advocates and protectors — and we ask our colleagues to do the same.
As faculty, we will commit to intervening in the moment. If hateful speech or behavior comes to light in our classrooms, labs, or shared spaces — behavior such as bullying, exclusion, slurs, demeaning comments, misgendering, harassing students for wearing religious dress, mocking disabilities, or espousing anti‑immigrant rhetoric — we will interrupt it, name it, document it, and report it. Silence in the face of hate is dangerous, and we will not be silent. As faculty, we are not only here to teach students but also to be mentors and pillars of support.
We will also support students in reporting incidents. We are not investigators, but we can be allies. If a student experiences hateful treatment and wishes to file a report with the College, we will offer to accompany them and help them document what happened. We will advocate on students’ behalf for protective measures they might seek, such as no‑contact directives, housing accommodations, or academic adjustments.
We will press for accountability and long-term change where faculty have leverage. While student-to-student conduct cases are adjudicated by the dean of the College, we as faculty play an important role in other processes. When students bring complaints involving faculty or staff, we will support the use of the standing Grievance Panel to ensure that concerns are heard and acted upon. Through contact with the Faculty Steering Committee — the elected committee charged with representing faculty concerns — we will press to prioritize open discussion of campus climate and hate incidents in faculty meetings.
Through contact with the Committee on Educational Affairs, we will support curricular structures that explicitly engage with equity and inclusion, such as the Difference, Power, and Equity course requirement, and advocate formalizing classroom climate as a priority for faculty so that hate is less likely to take root.
We will use our classrooms as spaces for learning and restoration. Through the readings we assign, the discussions we foster, and the speakers we bring to campus, we will highlight marginalized perspectives and make visible the danger of hate. Our classrooms are where we have the most direct influence, and we will wield it.
To our students of all marginalized identities: Your safety, dignity, and right to flourish are not negotiable.
To the entire college community: Hate incidents count on silence — on the assumption that these actions will solicit, at most, a reaction of quiet disapproval. We must undermine that assumption. As a small group of faculty writing this this op-ed, we commit to act — with urgency and resolve — because the care of our students demands nothing less. We invite our colleagues to join us in this commitment.
Phoebe Cohen is a professor of geosciences at the College. Jennifer French is a professor of environmental studies and Spanish, and chair of Romance languages and global studies at the College. Sarah Jacobson is a professor of economics and chair of environmental studies at the College. Chad M. Topaz is a professor of complex systems at the College.
