WGSS Program Statement in Response to Racial and Gender-Based Hate Speech and Harassment on Campus

October 28, 2021

The faculty of the Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies program at Stockton University are disturbed by the events of October 20, when an off-campus group came onto campus and harassed multiple members of the Stockton community, disrupting many students’ sense of safety and capacity to engage in learning. We wish to add our voices to those of the Student Senate, all those who spoke up in protest and have called for resistance, solidarity, and justice, and faculty and staff members who have voiced concerns regarding these events and the well-being of our students.

In light of this most recent incident of hate groups coming onto campus and targeting individuals and members of multiple groups, we reaffirm our commitment to stand with student and alumni leaders and activists in rejecting speech that constitutes a form of violence and backlash against individuals and communities. We pledge to follow the lead of members of targeted groups in setting institutional priorities and responding to students’ very legitimate fear, trauma and anger. As an academic program committed to intersectional analysis and pedagogy we will continue to engage in antiracist, antisexist, antihomophobic, antitransphobic assessment, teaching, and activism among ourselves, with our students and in our communities. 

With Student Senate President Bracey, we recommend that anyone in the community who was targeted or witnessed acts of bias or hate report their experience to the Bias Prevention Education and Review Team: https://www.stockton.edu/bias/index.html

As Pres. Bracey’s recent letter to the student body points out: “This website also has information on bias incidents, hate speech, the first amendment and safety/supportive measures that may be put into action to respond to bias on campus.” 

We further note that students who were targeted may choose to file a Title IX complaint with the university: https://www.stockton.edu/diversity/title-ix/report.html

As ever, we again call upon Stockton University to ensure that its dedication to supporting our students is explicitly anti-white supremacy, anti-rape, and anti-violence in relation to women, trans/queer, and disabled communities, as well as BIPOC, immigrant and all communities.

In solidarity,

The Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Program Faculty