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MU launches form to report 'bias' incidents

Hannah Stein, Senior Staff Writer

Students who experience harassment because of bias now have the option to submit the Bias Incident Reporting Form on Miami University's website.

Incidents may include bias directed towards age, skin color, religious beliefs or sexual orientation through incidents such as graffiti, vandalism, harassment, stalking or assault.

This form, which was launched in September, allows incidents involving biases that typically go unnoticed to be addressed by Miami administrators in the Institutional Diversity Office of the President.

Any incidents that are not categorized as criminal, involved in Student Affairs or Student Ethics can be addressed with this form.

"This lets us deal with the everyday hurt that doesn't get addressed and it would be nice for us to," said Ron Scott, associate vice president of Institutional Diversity.

While similar to EthicsPoint, the Bias Incident Reporting Form is for students who experience bias themselves whereas EthicsPoint is anonymous and is for people who observe misconduct such as cheating, said Claire Wagner, associate director of university communications.

"The form is designed so if you have an incident and you believe it's a bias incident against you, you would be the person who filled out the form and you would tell who was involved," Scott said. "If it's a group of people who are shouting names at you, and you know who they are, you would write their names down [on the form]. It would give the people seeing the report more information in order to take action."

Not all cases will enable officials to take action towards the people committing biased acts.

"In some instances, there might be nothing we can do," Scott said. "What it allows us to do is to talk to the student and see if they're okay. But sometimes, bad things happen and there's not much we can do. We're assuring folks that someone cares."

Instead of needing to discuss the incident in person, this form allows students to easily write down the experience in a more comfortable mode of communication.

"We find that people are comfortable sending notice by an email and/or Smartphone and you can be anywhere to send it," Wagner said.

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Officials said they hope this will encourage people to report incidents and will allow them to target issues that may be a problem on campus.

"I think it's another way of capturing any incidents out there and it gives faculty and staff a chance to keep an eye on what's going on on campus and it's a way for students to know the institution cares and fix anything that make this campus un-inclusive," Scott said.

Students said they think this new way to report personal incidents related to bias will make the Miami community more accepting.

"I think it should be very helpful," sophomore Aimee Yeager said. "It's pretty common knowledge that Miami isn't the most diverse, so anything that can be done to help reduce prejudice will strengthen the community and make Miami a more accepting place."

An article in the Oct. 11 issue of The Miami Student, ‘Miami hosts information security awareness week,' incorrectly identified the dates for the event as beginning Oct. 25. The event actually began Oct. 8.

Fourteen people took part in shredding 700 pounds of documents at an event called ShredFest on Wednesday afternoon.

"We were very happy with the turnout at ShredFest and hope to build on that for the future," said Randy Hollowell, senior communication and web coordinator of information technology services. "We are already planning another similar shred event for the spring."

At the two information booths 29 students took part in a bonus question, "What is your MUnet password?" Four students failed by actually giving away that information.

Special Agent Cynthia Cronin of the FBI presented about career paths in her field. JD Rogers, the Director of Information Security, Great American Financial Resources, Inc. spoke about the latest trends and strategies of security and hacking.

Chris Bernard, Director of Network Engineering and Telecommunications at Miami presented about the future of chat technology on Miami's campus.

[the NCAA board of directors] is working out," Mynarski said.

Junior Lisa Werwinski, a diver on Miami's swimming and diving team, said she can see the justification for the cost of attendance scholarship in some respects.

"To be completely honest, a full scholarship does not pay for the costs of attending college, such as traveling back home to see family members, miscellaneous expenses related to school supplies, laptops," Werwinski said. "Many athletes are recruited to compete for schools far from their hometowns, so the expenses associated with traveling home are often a concern. For phenomenal student athletes who may come from less affluent backgrounds, everyday expenses that we take for granted are likely a serious burden."

Werwinski said she thought if the cost of attendance scholarship were used for only its intended purpose, the underlying motives would be reasonable and well intended.  However, she said she is concerned the cost of attendance scholarship is vulnerable to misuse.

"The definition of cost of attendance is ambiguous by nature and therefore subject to abuse," Werwinski said. "Defining which expenses are covered under cost of attendance well enough to prevent the misuse of the phrase will be a large responsibility for the athletic administrative staff to take on. If this policy is implemented, I think a cap on the extra money is absolutely essential. Without this, anything and everything could begin to be classified as a cost of living expense."

Werwinski said she thought having a full scholarship to any university was a "blessing."

"From my experiences as a resident assistant, I have come to understand just how hard it is for some students to pay for school," Werwinski said. "These students would kill for anything close to a full scholarship, even if it does not cover the true expenses associated with college. From this perspective, I find myself wondering how one could even venture to say that a full scholarship is not good enough. I would hate to see college athletics turn from athletes who love the sports they play to athletes who are simply playing for money and other benefits."

While nothing is certain about the scholarship yet, Lener said he hopes Miami can do what is best for the student athletes.

"I think anytime you're given the opportunity to provide benefits we're always looking out for the best interests of the athletes," Lener said. "We never want to shortchang e our students."


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