MEDIA ADVISORY--(COLLEGIATE PRESSWIRE)--Oct 27, 2003--Tolerance.org just released a guidebook, ''10 Ways to Fight Hate on Campus: A Response Guide for College Activists,'' to help students deal effectively with bias incidents on campus.
Incidents like the one recently targeting Marqita Jones. A senior at the small, private Central College in Pella, Iowa, she found the N-word written hastily in black marker on her dorm-room door the weekend before classes began. ''Whenever I tell anybody about my Central experience, this will be part of the story,'' she said. ''This will always be part of my Central memories.''
Jones, like 25 percent of minority students each year, became the target of hate on her campus.
''Every day in this country, a hate crime occurs on a college campus,'' said Brandon Wilson, outreach associate for Tolerance.org, a project of the Southern Poverty Law Center. ''And every minute, a student somewhere is targeted with bigoted slurs or epithets.''
The Southern Poverty Law Center spent more than two years investigating hate crimes and bias incidents on college campuses. It found schools across the country�from Harvard to Ole Miss, Stanford to East Tennessee, Iowa State to Florida A&M;�struggling with the problem. ''No campus is immune to bias,'' said Wilson. Indeed, hate is so prevalent on college campuses, one expert has called it ''the background noise of students` lives.'' ''We hope to help students change that soundtrack,'' said Wilson.
Free copies of ''10 Ways to Fight Hate on Campus'' are available, in print and online, to members of college communities, and Tolerance.org offers workshops for campus groups interested in fighting hate and promoting tolerance. Information on both is available at www.tolerance.org/campus
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