Amidst the controversy surrounding the arrest of a black Spruce College House associate master over fall break, students are raising questions of racial profiling.
It "speaks very strongly to our increasingly fragile rights as members of the Penn community and more importantly, this incident really makes a strong statement about the inherently damaging nature of racial profiling," Carlos Rivera-Anaya, a College junior and admissions co-chairman of the United Minority Council said.
Rui DaSilva was attempting to deliver donated bikes to the Quadrangle on Oct. 11 when he was pepper-sprayed and arrested for disorderly conduct by a University Police officer.
The charges were later dropped after University administrators intervened.
DaSilva and his wife, Director of Latino Studies and Faculty Master Ann Farnsworth-Alvear, responded to the incident in an open letter published in The Daily Pennsylvanian last week, alongside a letter from Vice President for Public Safety Maureen Rush, which said "It was behavior, not race, which resulted in the stop." The letters confirmed ongoing disagreement about the facts of the incident.
On Thursday, the Faculty Senate called for an impartial investigation into the incident, prompting students across campus to discuss racial profiling and its impact at Penn.
According to Undergraduate Assembly Chairman Jason Levy, the Faculty Senate will have its regular meeting with the UA on Wednesday, when the issue will be discussed.
Rivera-Anaya said that while he feels personally safe on campus, "incidents like these really make me question who [the Penn Police are] trying to protect."
"I have had friends that have been followed, things like that," he said. "I've definitely seen cops stop certain students and question students...."
Rivera-Anaya agreed that he thinks the issue of racial profiling should be placed on "the forefront of Penn's initiatives... because I think this incident itself is a really shocking one."
UMOJA representative and College senior Chevon Walker wrote in an e-mail that she believes the arrest is "an example of racial insensitivity, a huge problem at Penn."
"I am afraid for black males with and without PennCards," she added. "It appears as though they are not even given the benefit of the doubt."
UMC President and College senior Darcy Richie said that though profiling is an important issue, "there are bigger problems at Penn" that affect members of the minority community and marginalized students.
"Race is such a significant issue on campus," Richie said. "This really should highlight an overarching problem."
She is worried that the arrest will cause members of the Penn community to overlook the problems of other community members.
"For all marginalized communities on campus, students have a very different experience and I hope that this incident at the same time brings to light what some minorities might be going through," Richie said. "Everybody can still look at or try and learn about what all other minorities are going through."
"There are a lot of communities that are dealing with a lot of political issues," she added, noting that it is important to "look at the big picture."
Other students stressed the importance of an independent investigation, as the Faculty Senate has requested.
Latino Coalition spokesman and Daily Pennsylvanian columnist Nicolas Rodriquez said he is "anxiously awaiting to see how the University resolves this issue and the incident with Rui."
Additionally, Rodriquez hopes that an investigation will shed some light on the issue of racial profiling in terms of this particular incident.
"I think it would... alleviate concerns by anyone in the community about the situation," he said.
Though the Latino Coalition has yet to discuss the issue as a group, its members have addressed the problem of racial profiling in the past and continue to be in contact with University Police officers.
"Not a great deal has come out of it," he said, but he noted that they continue to work together "on a month-to-month basis."
Cassi Pittman, vice president of the Black Student League, agreed that a wide range of students, not only minorities, must be involved in addressing the issue.
"I think if anybody has worked to address it on campus, it's been minority students historically, and minority student leaders especially," she said.
"It's time for us to build an interracial alliance to address this concern and come together as students to address injustice on our campus," Pittman added. "I don't think this incident should be looked at as an individual occurrence, but should be looked at in a larger framework."
Walker also stressed the importance of effective communication with the University Police, stating that "UMOJA has always attempted to have a relationship with the UPPD and other University officials." She also noted that she has discussed the DaSilva incident with Rush, but said that police declined to talk about the details.
"She didn't exactly say whether or not she thought the officer was right or wrong," Walker said. "She just told us what happened."
Indeed, Richie acknowledged her belief that, though "everybody profiles," the Penn Police sometimes engage in "unreasonable profiling."
"It seems as though the tendency of the Police Department is to use the Penn IDs as a pass card," she said, saying that her friends have been stopped in locations all across campus, whether it be in front of the bookstore or on a street corner.
"I feel safe because I have a relationship with the Police Department," she said. "I don't think that all students feel safe on campus."
