UPDATE: ETSU Senior Kayla Hackney, after finding one on her car in the Centennial Hall parking lot, confirms that the flyers found on some cars in ETSU campus parking lots Thursday were racially divisive. The flyers read “No White Guilt,” and go on to promote websites on “white well-being”.
The university released a statement Thursday afternoon following the discovery of the flyers, stating that said flyers do “not align with the mission and values of East Tennessee State University.”
This incident comes less than a year after “It’s okay to be white” flyers were found at several locations on ETSU’s campus Nov. 1, 2019.
Previously reported:
A statement from Vice President for Equity and Inclusion Dr. Keith Johnson and Vice President for Student Life and Enrollment Dr. Joe Sherlin notified ETSU students, faculty and staff that flyers displaying a message not aligned with the university’s values were placed on some cars in campus parking lots Thursday.
Johnson told the East Tennessean he is not sure who distributed or discovered the flyers, but he said they were found on cars in multiple parking lots on campus. He cannot disclose what the flyers said at this point in time, but he said the message was not representative of ETSU’s mission or vision.
“It’s just really appropriate in that this campus is a campus or university that supports all students, faculty and staff that it serves,” Johnson said. “And so, that does not exclude any particular population of individuals, and so anytime you post information out there that does not align with the mission and the vision of the institution I think is very inappropriate.”
Johnson also said regardless of what the message was, the posting of flyers on or in campus buildings or on vehicles without prior approval is a violation of university policy.
Johnson mentioned to the East Tennessean steps the ETSU community can take to prevent incidents like these from happening in the future, referring back to his message in the June Office of Equity and Inclusion Newsletter, which was written shortly after the murder of George Floyd this summer.
“There were 11 things that I identified that we as a community can do to help address some of these issues in our own areas,” Johnson said. “It doesn’t necessarily have to be whether you’re here on campus, but around your friends, your families or anyone. Number one, you have to speak against it – that’s just one thing of many that you can do. Learn about what racism really is, what discriminatory practice really is, look at your own policies within your own organization and just, if you have something there that advantages one group at the same time that it disadvantages another group, then those policies probably need to be evaluated, as well as practices that you may have.”
According to the statement, ETSU Public Safety was notified about the incident, and additional security patrols are now in place. Johnson said they will continue to update the ETSU community as they get more information about the situation.
