Carrying signs and chanting slogans in protest of alleged racial remarks by a University Medical Center supervisor, over 50 students, staff and activists turned out to picket in front of the University hospital Friday.
The hour-long lunchtime gathering attracted the attention of many bystanders but did not impede traffic or disrupt normal operations at the hospital.
Elizabeth Coles, a member of the Staff Union at the University of Virginia and physical tech senior in the Medical School, said the purpose of the protest was to make people aware of racial problems at the University, beyond the widely publicized blackface incident last Halloween and the alleged assault on Student Council President Daisy Lundy during the election.
Last week, the administration investigated allegations that a medical supervisor used a racial epithet in front of employees before a staff meeting Nov. 10. After word of the alleged incident spread from those involved, staff union members sent e-mails to Virginia Gov. Mark R. Warner Thursday, hours before University President John T. Casteen, III released an official statement about the incident.
Included in the statement was a report by Medical Center CEO R. Edward Howell, who conducted separate interviews with those present at the original meeting. The report included the supervisor's alleged remark.
"I can't believe in this day and age that there's a sports team in our nation's capital named the Redskins. That is as derogatory to Indians as having a team called Niggers would be to blacks," was roughly what the supervisor reportedly said.
Coles said she was informed of the alleged incident soon after it occurred and doubts that anyone would have taken issue with that version of the comments.
"I don't think it was used that way," she said. "Anytime that word is used, that is offensive."
University spokesperson Carol Wood said she believed Howell's report to be accurate because all relevant parties provided corroborating accounts of the incident.
"They were interviewed individually," she said. "It was clear that they were all at the same conversation."
Despite this disparity, Coles said she was satisfied with the University's action in response to the incident, which, according to Casteen's statement, included a follow-up with the supervisor.
"I don't want her to be fired," she said. "I just want her to be aware that word can't be said."
In addition to addressing the alleged incident, Friday's protest was part of the staff union's larger fight for worker's rights, said Dena Bowers, a member of SUUVA, the NAACP and a University employee.
"African-American workers have not been able to budge from a low income level," she said.
Bowers added that a "plantation mentality" exists at the University, with the administration giving mere "lip service" to diversity issues.
"I think that they think in their narrow minds that having high ranking African-Americans in education will somehow diminish the value, ranking and educational quality of the institution when, in fact, it is just the opposite," she said.
Following the alleged attack on Lundy last spring, the President's Office and the Board of Visitors created separate committees on diversity and equity, in part to address such concerns, Wood said.
"We're trying to really talk about diversity issues at the University," she said. "The bottom line is the University is committed to being a welcoming place for all people."
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