Casteen also sent a letter to faculty on Sept. 20 that asked them to speak to students and take a stand against the acts of intolerance.

“Specifically, I ask teaching faculty to make a brief personal statement at the next meeting of each of your courses about your view of the unacceptability of racial harassment or abuse, indeed of any kind of harassment or abuse, within the University community,” Casteen wrote.

The administration’s response has been unusually open on an issue that some at the university characterized as a persistent problem.

“It’s always been going on, a couple incidents a year, with people abused or injured,” says Keith R. Favreau, who is a junior at UVa.

Two past incidents have attracted significant attention. In October 2002, three people attended a fraternity party with their faces painted black, provoking a university investigation, the Cavalier Daily reported. Then, on Feb. 26, 2003, Student Council presidential candidate Daisy Lundy, who is black, had her head slammed against the steering wheel of her car while her attacker shouted a racial epithet, according to the Daily. In response to the incidents, the university created a commission to investigate issues of race and college and community life in September 2003, Wood says. The Commission on Diversity and Equity issued a report in 2004 and its recommendations are posted on the university’s website.

As a result of the commission’s work, William B. Harvey, the president of the Center for Advancement of Racial and Ethnic Equity at the American Council on Education, was appointed the first vice president and chief officer for diversity and equity on Sept. 13—after the series of incidents but before Casteen’s Rotunda speech.

“This is not something new just in reaction to” the new incidents, Wood says. “It is a very strong commitment to diversity and equity—it is a very public commitment.”

Neither of the past events prompted a response as public as this time.

“I’ve talked to some old alumni, and they were astonished” with the administration’s reaction, says Drew Austria, the president of the Asian Student Union at UVa. In particular, Austria says they were particularly impressed by Casteen’s Rotunda speech.

The high volume of racist incidents occurring within such a short time period made it difficult for the administration not to speak out, says M. Rick Turner, the UVa dean African-American Affairs.

“One or two issues can be talked about and handled,” he says. “If you get five or six, and you get pressure from your administration and your students and [the governing board] and from alums, you’re going to respond.”

“The president and [the board] felt it was important to be very public—and we already were very public—but to get out there and stand on the steps of the Rotunda, and let everyone know how despicable these acts are and we don’t tolerate them in our community,” says UVa spokeswoman Wood.

“The more vocal and public we are, we let the perpetrators know that they are the ones who don’t belong in our community,” she added.

PRAISE—BUT HOPE FOR MORE

On the whole, students and staff lauded the administration for not downplaying the racist incidents and confronting the intolerance instead.