Wheaton Episode of Racism Called Part of National Trend

A white student walking down the hall of her dormitory at Wheaton College found a noose hanging near the door of a black dormmate three weeks ago. It was the sixth apparently racist incident to occur at the college in the last two years, said Dean of Students Niki Janus last week.

Representatives of an intercollegiate group organized to prevent such incidents said last week that Wheaton's problems with racism reflect a recent trend throughout American college campuses.

Wheaton is one of twelve colleges participating in Societies Organized Against Racism (SOAR), a two year-old group originated by Darryl Smaw, a chaplain at Brown University.

"I don't think Wheaton is the exception to the rule," Smaw said, adding that in the past two years "we [the U.S.] have fostered a climate in which it is more acceptable to be an overt racist."

Wheaton administrators responded to the noose incident quickly, sending letters to every student and holding mandatory dorm meetings condemning the occurrence.

The students responsible for the act came forward and were dealt with "satisfactorily to all those involved," Janus said. She refused to elaborate on the specific solutions.

SOAR's members are Bowdoin, Boston College, Brown, Dartmouth, Fitchburg State, Northeastern, Smith, Trinity, Tufts, Wesleyan, Wheaton, and Williams.

One student at Harvard tried to get students involved in SOAR but was "very, very frustrated because he was meeting opposition at all levels," Smaw said.

But other colleges have been successful with their new programs.