The Faculty Senate Executive Committee strongly condemns the recent racist hate speech and behavior by a self-described white nationalist UNL student.
As representatives of the university community, we are horrified and saddened by this student’s language that promotes hatred, glorifies violent acts and targets our students, colleagues and friends who are members of a minority or other historically marginalized groups on campus.
By making them feel unsafe and vulnerable, these statements undermine the core values of our community -- that every student, staff and faculty member has the right to feel safe, secure and equally protected from targeted hatred. We stand in solidarity with them and are committed to a principle that must be the bedrock of any learning community: the assurance that all can be provided with a quality education in a safe, supportive environment.
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We understand and support the need of the University of Nebraska to protect everyone’s First Amendment rights and encourage its application to all university communities and political viewpoints. Such protections also permit the university community’s condemnation of points of view that seek to destroy civil discourse through intimidation, including vague threats of violence.
We call on our administration to protect our community from both this individual and other entities trying to undermine these core values and principles.
The promotion of diversity and inclusiveness on our campus must be integrated into all aspects of our esteemed institution. The explicit promotion of violence, and glorification of hate crimes expressed in these views, go beyond the mere expression of a distasteful ideology.
We emphatically reiterate our stance against this hate, violence, bigotry and misogyny and call on the entire university community to take a proactive stand against these abhorrent sentiments. All of us must treat all others with dignity and respect, and we cannot waver in the face of this attack on basic human values.
University of Nebraska–Lincoln Faculty Senate Executive Committee
Sarah Effken Purcell, President, Nebraska Extension
Jeffrey P. Rudy, President-Elect, Nutrition & Health Sciences
David A. Woodman, Past-President, School of Biological Sciences
Joan Latta Konecky, Secretary, University Libraries
Shireen Adenwalla, Physics and Astronomy
Robert F. Belli, Psychology
Lorna Dawes, University Libraries
John C. Fech, Nebraska Extension
Kevin Hanrahan, Glenn Korff School of Music
Ronald Lee, Communication Studies
Richard A. Leiter, Law College
Wesley F. Peterson, Agricultural Economics
Hamid Vakilzadian, Electrical & Computer Engineering