The rally was loud. The message was even louder — but maybe not loud enough.

One year ago tomorrow, the campus came together to rally against bias-related incidents that happened on campus last spring — the goal being to “erase the hate.”

In the last year, students said they believe they have made individual and group contributions to improve the racial climate on campus. Administrators said they believe they’ve taken concrete steps to make a more comfortable environment for minority students.

But there is still much work to be done. Brian McAree, vice president of student affairs and campus life, said there has been no significant decrease in bias-related incidents reported on campus so far this year, according to statistics from his office.

The Erase the Hate rally, which more than 500 students attended, came in response to racist graffiti in and around the Towers Concourse and the theft of the Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Pride flag in April 2005.

Earlier in that semester, there were other racial incidents — an Asian student was yelled at from a residence hall and a black student was harassed in an elevator.

Junior Ebony Blue, spokesperson for the African-Latino Society, said the rally was monumental last April.

“It was so much unity in that day,” she said. “It was the entire campus there to make a change. The strength was in the numbers.”

A changed atmosphere?

Then-junior Joncier Rienecker said on a night in February 2005 a male student she had never seen before entered the elevator with her in the East Tower and started jumping as it ascended. She said when she asked him to stop jumping, he said, “It’s niggers like you who make me hate black people.” The suspect was never caught.

That incident prompted an outpouring of support for Rienecker, now a senior, and outrage among the college community, which led up to the Erase the Hate rally.

A year later, Rienecker said the event changed her life — for the better.

“I got a real sense of what I wanted to do in my life,” she said. This fall, Rienecker started the show “Bridging the Gaps” on the college’s 92 WICB-FM radio station to discuss civility and diversity issues. She said she plans to remain active after graduation.

Because of the events of last year, Rienecker, junior April Richardson and several more students formed the Erase the Hate Task Force, which organized the rally and made recommendations to the college.

Richardson said the campus has changed in the last year, noting that last year there was blatant apathy. Now people are more involved, she said.

But Blue said she hasn’t seen any “super-noticeable changes” on campus since last semester.

“The campus is still really divided,” she said.

Recent statistics from McAree show at least some division. As of March 1 of this year, there were 18 bias-related incidents, compared to 26 incidents in 2004-05.

When asked to provide the number of bias-related incidents on campus, Tom Dunn, Public Safety investigator, said there had been an increase from 21 in 2004-05 to 22 in 2005-06.

McAree said his office officially determines what is a bias-related incident, and he could not account for the difference in numbers. He only speculated that certain incidents were counted differently in Public Safety’s statistics.

Bias-related incidents are classified under discrimination against race, sexual orientation, gender, ethnicity, disability and religion. Most of the incidents that brought the campus to rally last year dealt with race and sexual orientation. Of the 18 bias-related incidents this year that McAree’s office reported, 10 dealt with religion, six dealt with sexual orientation and four dealt with race. Some incidents had multiple biases. Almost all religion-related incidents were anti-Semitic.

Dunn said one reason students may perceive there were significantly fewer incidents this year was because of the concentration of incidents. Ten bias-related incidents were reported between April 9 and 14 last year.

“In reality day in and day out …we look at these cases all the time,” Dunn said.

Last year students were notified of the influx of racial incidents by e-mail.

Rienecker said she hadn’t heard about many of the incidents this year and was surprised there was not a significant decrease.

“This further proves our point that our struggle and work are far from complete,” Rienecker said.

Two years ago, students were notified of bias-related incidents with posters in a process overseen by the Bias-Related Incidents Committee, formed in 1996 to inform the campus. It was eliminated in 2005 because its effectiveness was questioned. Now, incoming students receive a brochure about reporting such incidents to Public Safety, President Peggy R. Williams said. Williams said there may be a significantly smaller amount of incidents occurring, but there could be a greater percentage of those incidents being reported.

Senior Joe Wladkowski, president of prism, said “erase the hate” has become a sort of “buzzword” on campus for anything bias- related, but still hasn’t become reality.

“I don’t think there’s been a huge attitude change among the student body,” he said.

But Wladkowski added he is not worried that the LGBT flag, which typically flies at the college in April, will be stolen this year. The flag had been stolen four of the past five years, including last year.

A combined effort

Last year, the Erase the Hate Task Force made four demands, including installing security cameras on campus, holding workshops for freshmen during continuing orientation, reviewing the diversity course listing and making a working definition of diversity.

In response to the Erase the Hate Task Force’s recommendations, last month the college approved the purchase of security cameras, which will be placed on campus at the discretion of Public Safety. At continuing orientation this year, freshmen attended a diversity workshop, which was also given to staff members in January, Williams said.

The diversity courses offered were evaluated, and current classes include Introduction to Multicultural Studies and The Psychology of Women.

The college also worked on its definition of diversity, which Williams said includes focusing on the historically underprivileged groups.

Williams also announced in January that classes for the 2007-08 school year will begin the day after Martin Luther King Day. Another contribution was the creation of the Web site on diversity, www.ithaca.edu/ diversity.

McAree said for the last year the administration has taken concrete steps to help ensure the campus is a comfortable environment for all.

He added that security cameras may not create a more diverse environment, but “when people feel more safe, they feel more comfortable.”

Terry Martinez, director for student leadership and involvement, said the college still has many steps to take to meet its diversity goals, but the accomplishments in the last year have brought the issue of diversity to light.

“I think it definitely has succeeded,” she said.

Richardson said she is happy with the progress the college made so far, specifically the work toward the recommendations made by the Erase the Hate Task Force.

“I’m pleased they took us seriously,” she said.

Future Goals

Last year, the president’s diversity task force, formed to evaluate the college’s progress in implementing the Institutional Plan, recommended that a diversity requirement should be implemented campus wide. But the college is considering other options, such as a requirement that students do an internship, study abroad or take some other kind of class to get a diverse experience, Williams said. Williams said the college will continue its efforts to enroll more African, Latino, Asian and Native American students. Currently 9.3 percent of students are ALANA.

So far, the college has seen a 15.6 percent increase in applications for ALANA students for the 2007-08 school year, said Dave Maley, director of media relations.

There has been an 11.8 percent increase in total applications, he said.

Williams said the college’s efforts in recruiting minority students, as well as making the college a more comfortable place, have to be ongoing.

“The work never ends,” Williams said. “We have new people in the community each year.”

Rienecker urges others, as she has done, to take the events of last spring and do something positive with them.

“I would urge everyone to just be active,” Rienecker said. “It’s not the incident that matters, it’s what happens after the incident.”