Campus reacts to racial profiling claim

From the Undergraduate Assembly and the Division of Public Safety to the Office of the University Provost, officials are stepping in to handle the controversy that emerged last week surrounding allegations of racial profiling.

Last Wednesday, a black male College student was temporarily detained outside of Huntsman Hall by Penn Police.

The College student, who requested anonymity, told The Daily Pennsylvanian that the police handcuffed him for security concerns that, in actuality, were based on his race.

DPS officials, however, said the student had become confrontational with the two security guards, and that the police responded appropriately by temporarily detaining the student before determining that no crime had occurred.

DPS is currently investigating the incident.

In the meantime, the issue was brought to the UA during its weekly meeting last Sunday.

At the meeting, the UA issued a "statement of concern" about "perceptions on campus of bias-based profiling."

The statement expressed the UA's support of DPS's continued investigation and collection of all facts about the situation.

The UA plans on raising this issue at Wednesday's University Council meeting, at which students and faculty advise the President and Provost on University-wide issues.

The UA's statement was made after leaders of major minority coalitions on campus - including the United Minorities Council, Lambda Alliance and the Asian Pacific Student Coalition - issued a statement expressing their own concerns about what they consider to have been "bias-based profiling."

"We cannot actively support this institution until we can trust that our needs are a priority and will result in action," the groups wrote in a statement to the UA and the University administration last Thursday.

Representatives from all three groups will attend the University Council meeting.

Also over the weekend, leaders from those groups met with University Provost Ronald Daniels and Associate Provost Andrew Binns to discuss the incident.

As University and student officials consider what action to take next, administrators stress that the most important thing is to get as many facts as possible.

The "best way to address the concerns of any students or groups of students is to create opportunities for dialogue," Daniels wrote in an e-mail.

Binns added that the meeting was productive, and that the "important thing to remember is that this is hard work."

College junior Kevin Rurak, chairman of Lambda Alliance - the umbrella organization for LGBT groups - called the meeting "preliminary."

"We want to know what rights we have with students when dealing with police and the University," he said.

At the meeting, one major topic included excessive police responses on campus, as was alleged to have occurred Wednesday night.

College junior Ben Schneider, an eyewitness to Wednesday night's events, recalled seeing "two white men running down Walnut" Street, referring to Penn Police.

"One had his club drawn. Then there were tons of policemen. The response was huge compared to what the accusation was," Schneider said.

To address this issue, and others, DPS is meeting with the leaders of the various minority coalitions on Wednesday, DPS spokeswoman Karima Zedan said.

Zedan noted that the student involved in the incident met with DPS officials yesterday and has decided not to file a formal complaint against DPS.

This move, she said, limits DPS's investigation to an internal investigation only, meaning that DPS cannot talk to the student or to witnesses when compiling information about the matter.

- Staff Writer Rebecca Kaplan contributed reporting to this article.

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