The University of Massachusetts (UMass) has a campus located in the historic Pioneer Valley of Western Massachusetts. UMass at Amherst has a student body of approximately 25,000 consisting of students predominantly from the "majority" group. The minority student population at UMass is very sparse especially its African American population. Most of the blacks that make up the minority student body are foreign students who came from various countries in West Africa and the Caribbean to pursue their studies.

The neighborhood surrounding UMass is referred to as "the five college area" since four other colleges-Amherst College, Hampshire College, Mount Holyoke College and Smith College- are located in this area. Beside the college population, mostly retired whites reside in the large houses which are located miles apart in the valley area

The composition of the UMass student body also reflect the composition of its departmental faculty, and yearly, very few minority students, particularly black students, are admitted to the Masters and Doctoral Programs.

In order to assist the minority students to survive the various graduate programs, a minority students' scholarship was set up by the recently established Office of Minority Student Recruitment. Most minority students complain that they have no access to the general university scholarships since they often lack the knowledge about specific procedures, information is often not shared with them, and they often score comparatively lower on the Graduate Record Examination (GRE) which was taken into consideration for such scholarships. Consequently, the attempt appears to be less than genuine to many minority students.

On the surface, the graduate students from all racial and cultural backgrounds appeared to communicate well, bonded by the common experience of their educational pursuits. However, problems with interracial and cross-cultural communications often surfaced when select groups of minority students gathered at organizational meetings. Issues surfaced regarding differential treatment by professors and sometimes the often narrow-minded statements made by both 'majority' students and faculty.

Professor Hill is the current Professor of Epidemiology in the Department of Public health. He held this position for several years and is highly regarded by his peers. In addition, Professor Hill is the designated Advisor for a number of students in the Masters and Doctoral programs in Public Health.

Linda Blair is a Masters level student in the department of Public Health. She is a citizen of Jamaica, West Indies where she attended the best high school. She was always top of her class. She came to the United States on a student's visa to pursue her bachelor's degree. Despite numerous hardships, she graduated summa cum laude from Brooklyn College and decided to attend graduate school.

Linda was admitted to UMass with much trouble since she had scored just around the 40 th percentile in each area on the GRE. However, she had decided to be a provisional student for one semester pending her grades then she would be given regular student status.

Linda enrolled in Professor Hill's introductory Epidemiology class. She was doing very well on her assignments and exams. She often spoke with Professor Hill about various academic options since he was her designated advisor. Linda respected her advisor and began to develop, what she thought was, a good professional relationship with him. Linda's underlying assumptions was that Professor Hill also respected her as a human being and also as a good student.

The week before Thanksgiving, Professor Hill was lecturing on the prevalence of certain diseases in various population groups. The lecture was quite lively and the students were actively participating. Linda was sitting in her usual seat in the front row in the seat closest to the professor's desk. She was very outstanding since she was the only black student in the class. The only other minority student in the class was an Asian student from Bangladesh. Suddenly, Professor Hill remarked, "What disease do those people have, the ones that stand around the street corner in Springfield ?" About 40 white students bursted out with enthusiasm, "sickle cell". Linda looked at Professor Hill in disbelief at what appeared to her to be a most stereotypical and demeaning remark toward minority people, and was equally disappointed with her advisor, who she thought respected her as a human being and student. It was clear from the zeal of the class that Professor Hill and the rest of the class were totally unaware of the inappropriateness of the statement. The only two students who were not amused were Linda and the student from Bangladesh. To Linda, this remark was insensitive and insulting. Springfield was inner-city and it was a part of Massachusetts with a predominantly low income minority population primarily of Blacks and Hispanics. Linda sat in her seat wondering if she should just run out of the class and slam the door or sit and take it, or even to make an equally disgusting remark about skin cancer.

After spending about fifteen minutes totally ignoring the rest of the lecture, Linda decided that making a remark about skin cancer would be equally low and insensitive. She endured the class to its end but left the class feeling very emotionally upset and helpless. That night, Linda and the student for Bangladesh spoke, on the telephone, about how insensitive the remark was and they both expressed how helpless they felt given the environment in which they were expected to survive for the next two years.

The next day, Linda spoke with two white women from her department about the remark. They both justified the remark by indicating that unfortunately Epidemiology involved pointing out the differences among population groups. Neither of these women even considered the insensitive manner in which the remark was made nor the contempt with which the words were uttered.

Feeling even more enraged, Linda called up the leaders of the Black Student's Association on campus and indicated what had transpired. All of the committee members agreed that thay needed to call on all of the organinization's members to come out and demonstrate in front of the School Public Health. They also wrote a letter to the Chairman of the department indicating the nature of the insensitive remark and demanding an apology from Professor Hill by the following day. A carbon copy of the letter was also forwarded to Professor Hill. The Black Student's Association also indicated that they had organized a protest and demonstration to be held in front of the School of Public Health if a response was not received by the following day. The officers of the association also indicated their intent to further file a complaint with the Dean of the University and to publicly expose the racist attitudes displayed by the University's Professors.

As Professor Hill sat in his office grading the most recent assignments, he received a call from the Chairman of the department indicating that a complaint was made against him and that the allegations were very serious. The Chairperson, Dr. Mc Clure indicated to Professor Hill that there were surely more conventional approaches that he could have utilized to get his lesson across. The Chairperson indicated that a protest would be bad exposure for the department and the school, and he urged Professor Hill to apologize to the minority students in the class as well as to the Black Student's Association to avoid the Dean from becoming involved in the matter.

Before Professor Hill could make his apology the next day, minority students from Amherst College had joined with the UMass Black Student Association to protest in front of the School of Public Health. Somehow, the news had spread and reporters for the Amherst Gazette were present to interview the complaining students. That evening, the racial tension at UMass was the headline in the news.

The situation totally got out of hand and Dean Dante recommended that Professor Hill take a leave of absence until the situation was diffused and until the Provost make a recommendation regarding Pofessor Hill's tenure with the University.

Several of the majority students from Professor Hill's classes wrote letters in support of Professor Hill indicating that he was an excellent Professor and that these events were a terrible over-reaction to an isolated case of insensitivity on professor Hill's part. The students began to organize a counter demonstration with the hope of urging the Dean to reconsider his recommendations.

The entire turn of events caused Linda to feel even more uncomfortable in this environment. She made a statement to the press that she would never recommend any racial or ethnic minorities to this University.

QUESTIONS:

1. What options did Linda have to resolve this issue constructively ?
2. What potential problems could have arisen if Linda had approached Professor Hill directly about his remark ?
3. Were linda and the Black Student Association over-reacting, given the non-supportive environment in which they function ?
4. What strategies could be employed to prevent such problem?