FRAMINGHAM, Mass. – A Prayer service was held Wednesday afternoon at Framingham State University after a series of racially-charged incidents.
In the past two months, five incidents have been reported with the most recent victim to receive a note with a racial slur being targeted for the second time.
“These events that have happened, any kind of racist events, it’s tremendously damaging to the community, it hurts everybody,” university president F. John Cevallos said.
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The service was primarily attended by faculty and staff members, something that students noticed.
“We need to rise together and make sure nothing like this happens again because this happened 5 times on our campus and the first and second time was like ok, it was eye opening, but for that to happen 3 more times, somethings not happening,” student Corey McFeeley said.
Other students said a major reason there’s a lack of interest is the discussion isn’t being led by those victimized.
“It’s whatever betters the university is how I feel but they’ve forgotten about us, our voice has been silenced and we need to open that backup,” Ilya Driggs said.
Driggs told Boston 25 News she Believes administrators should be passing the microphone to those who are being targeted, and students of color need to be leading the dialogue. Instead, she’s hosting a gathering for that purpose tonight.
“There’s no voice in this community at all for us, so I want them to use that voice and say what they need to say and how they feel because, the faculty and administration can attend this talk can understand us,” she said.
The university president said the school has taken major actions to remedy this by adding security cameras and putting staff and campus police through diversity training. They are considering making diversity training a requirement for all incoming students.