Students at the University of Nevada, Reno are concerned that discussions aimed at addressing free speech, tolerance, and social justice issues on campus are not effective.
Administrators and students met for a town hall this week to discuss challenges the university community has faced due to several recent expressions of hate on campus.
Outgoing President Marc Johnson was among the panelists and said universities are a marketplace of ideas.
‘In our educational environment here, we have to learn how to use the tool of speech to build each other up, and respect and understand. So our purpose here is to learn from different ideas,” President Johnson said.
But students, including Duncan Boren, said that these types of events and discussions are not addressing solutions.
“It would have made me feel better if I'd heard a more direct response from the administration on what they can do — if not to stop this — than to really reassure students that they want to stop this,” Boren said.
Racial tensions grew last year when several swastikas and flyers promoting white supremacist groups were found on campus.
As a note of disclosure, the license to this station is owned by the Board of Regents for the Nevada System of Higher Education.
Lesly Virgen-Mariscal is a bilingual student reporter with Noticiero Móvil at the Reynolds School of Journalism.
