By Signal Editorial Board
The Signal published an editorial on Feb. 7 condemning antisemitic, racist, homophobic and transphobic comments that targeted other students, including two Signal editors and students in PRISM, the College’s oldest gender and sexuality alliance. These messages were sent by members of the TCNJ College Republicans in their recognized student organization public GroupMe chat. The editorial also questioned why the College did not take any action against the RSO after it was made aware of the messages.
After our editorial was published, many members of the greater College community expressed disdain for the nature of the comments that were made, specifically those that directly targeted individual students.
The Signal also published a letter to the editor from President Michael Bernstein, as well as a letter to the editor from 24 alumni of the College, both regarding the situation.
We greatly appreciate the support that our community has shown us, and we are grateful that our editorial has started a conversation about addressing hate speech on campus.
However, The Signal does not appreciate those who are using this situation as an excuse to “expose” students because of their behavior, or to publish screenshots of the hateful messages in ways that could put victims of the hateful rhetoric at further risk.
Fighting hate with hate only leads to more hate. As leadership from both the TCNJ College Republicans and PRISM said in The Signal’s recent article, “TCNJ College Republicans’ GroupMe messages spark conversations about free speech,” education is the best way to move forward from this situation. The Signal also agrees that this would be a positive approach.
Jordan Richman, director of Student Conduct and Off-Campus Services, told The Signal in an email statement for the aforementioned article that Student Conduct “prioritizes education and restorative approaches to address concerns, promote accountability, and support affected individuals.”
We wish Student Conduct would have followed through with this initiative in response to The Signal’s bias report investigation.
In a Dec. 18 email informing us that no violations to the Student Conduct Code or Recognized Student Organization Privileges & Responsibilities were found in relation to this incident, Conduct said, “Although there isn't sufficient information for charges, in similar circumstances, we have opted to have an educational conference to address any concerns raised.”
However, this educational option was not explicitly offered to us.
No directions were provided beyond this statement as to whether we could pursue an educational path forward, or how to go about doing so if we wanted to.
By moving forward in a way that teaches students about the impact of their comments, it can avoid producing any further hostilities toward one another. Our campus should be a safe place for students to coexist despite our differing backgrounds, beliefs and identities.
Hate has no place in our community, and we must all do our part to continually call it out in ways that do not spur further negativity.
