FOUR DECADES after the civil rights movement reaffirmed the Constitution's guarantee of racial equality, it is an unfortunate truth that race relations continue to be an issue in America. Although Charlottesville can seem like an idyllic world of its own, we saw last semester that the University suffers from its own racial tensions. Following a widely publicized spurt of racial incidents, students and the administration responded. While students focused on denouncing the particular actions, the administration had long been pursuing the more ambitious goal of changing the very culture of the University. In seeking these commendable goals, however, actions that could threaten free expression at the University must be avoided. The University's new bias incident reporting system, Just Report It, is worrisome in this respect on several levels.
Less than a month ago, the full details of the University's bias incident reporting system were revealed. Since "bias incident" is a rather vague term, the University officially defines it as "a threat or act of bigotry, harassment or intimidation -- verbal, written or physical
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