Members of Onyx, Penn's black senior honor society, have voiced concern about racism on campus after allegedly hearing several students in the Quadrangle yell racial slurs during their annual induction ceremony earlier this month.
According to Onyx members, this has been an ongoing issue.
"This happens regularly every year during the ceremony," College senior and Onyx Vice President Elizabeth Todd said. "Two years ago, I think someone threw bananas at the group."
"The fact that it's happened every year shows the consistent pattern of attitudes that people at this university hold," Todd added. "I would really like to see [University President Judith] Rodin make a statement on the issue."
Harold Haskins -- Onyx's adviser and the director of Student Development Support in the Office of the Vice Provost for University Life -- will meet with members of Onyx today for the first time since the incident to discuss the next step.
Haskins said that, though racist speech is something that "comes up at this time every year, for the last three or four years," and that administrators are aware of the issue, resolution is difficult, as there is no one in particular at the other end to confront.
But he said that the incident could lead to the issuance of a formal complaint, adding that such an incident would most likely be handled by the Office of Fraternity and Sorority Affairs, as Onyx is a social society.
According to Todd, the society's ceremony is for new and old members to tour campus, visiting landmarks which feature black achievement. The tour concludes at Wynn Commons, and as the Onyx members walk back to DuBois College House, they chant, "Say it loud, I'm black and I'm proud. Who? Onyx? What?"
This Nov. 4, the group headed past the lower Quadrangle entrance on Spruce Street between 11:30 p.m. and midnight. According to College senior and Onyx Secretary Afiya Mangum, many students came to their windows to see what the noise was about.
Mangum said that there were mixed responses to the chanting at first, but "then, as we progressed toward the middle of the Quad, they started to yell 'shut up, niggers'... multiple times."
But Onyx members said they did not respond directly to the alleged slurs. "Our response was just to yell louder," Todd said.
"If people want to yell 'shut up'... whatever... I don't take that personally," Todd added. "But to yell a racial slur out your window because you're trying to sleep is ridiculous, atrocious and unacceptable."
She said the offensive responses only make it clear that the tradition should not end -- "What we say needs to be heard."
Spruce College House Dean Marilynne Diggs-Thompson said she had not been made aware of the Nov. 4 incident. Fisher-Hassenfeld College House Dean Andrea Jane Rogers could not be reached for comment.
Many Quadrangle residents were unaware of the Onyx induction ceremony.
"I haven't heard anything about that," Engineering senior Jonathan Sussman said.
Racial tensions at Penn hit an extreme in 1993, when then-College freshman Eden Jacobowitz called a group of black women "water buffalo" from his high rise window while they were engaging in a sorority ritual below. Jacobowitz was charged with violating Penn's speech code, leading to criticism of the University from the media. The charges against Jacobowitz were ultimately dropped, as were Penn's speech codes.
And more recently, such concerns of campus racism have not been limited to Onyx's ceremony. On Nov. 14, three black female Penn students and a friend were walking toward the high rises when a group of college-aged white males began to sing about Zulu warriors, College senior Charnan Cooke said.
"Obviously, it was directed toward us," she said, adding that the males proceeded to call them "chocolate sauce."
"Initially, I was just completely overcome with shock, and really wanted to believe that I had misheard what they'd said," Cooke said. "But it was when I looked at my girlfriends and we all had a similar expression on our faces that I had to face the reality that that's what they said."
Mangum said that these incidents are not isolated. "By me reporting this, I hope that other people will take each individual instance of racial slurs more seriously and report each one so that awareness and disciplinary actions can occur," she said.
Staff reporter Laura Sullivan contributed to this report.
