More than 30 students attended a forum Wednesday night at the Akers Hall auditorium to discuss relations between MSU police and minority students.
The forum, hosted by Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity, gave students an opportunity to express concerns about policing at minority student events. It was scheduled after some students expressed dissatisfaction with how MSU police handled a gathering of nearly 500 people Sept. 7 in a Spartan Village parking lot that resulted in numerous fights.
Some students present at the incident have said police failed to separate the crowd to end the fights.
Police officials have said the crowd was too large and too violent for the number of officers available.
Microbiology senior Osie Gaines, Alpha Phi Alpha president, said while he hoped the forum opened up the lines of communication between students and campus police, those who attended have a responsibility to share what they learned with others.
“Forums like this usually preach to the congregation,” he said. “The people who attend them aren’t the ones starting the fights at these events. We have to figure out a way to enlighten the ones who don’t know what’s going on because they may be young or apathetic.”
Among the audience were members of Black Student Alliance. Communication senior Tonya Upthegrove, BSA president, said MSU police shouldn’t be the only people preventing problems at events.
“We need to hold ourselves accountable and police our own events instead of always expecting DPPS to fix everything after things get out of control,” she said. “We have to come up with community standards of our own before the university forces them upon us and it becomes a thing that we can’t have these events anymore.”
Upthegrove said one solution to the problem may be admitting only MSU students to events, rather than publicizing to the local community.
“Organizations may lose money, but in the end we can continue to have parties,” she said. “We can’t just have a profit-based mentality. We have to think about what type of legacy we’re leaving for future students to have events.”
MSU police Capt. Dave Trexler, Sgt. Alan Haller and Lt. Kelly Beck also discussed issues such as racial profiling and event security at the forum.
Haller said he agrees with Upthegrove’s suggestions.
“If we can have minority events where you have to be a student to get in, the majority of problems will gone,” he said.
Anyone attending the forum was allowed to speak at the end of the night.
Mechanical engineering senior DeVon Washington offered his own answer to deal with problems at minority student events.
“There’s a large social climate for white students,” he said. “They can choose to go to any number of bars or parties. But there’s not as much going on for black students, so every event that comes up is a big deal.
“If there was an ongoing social outlet for the African-American student population, you would see a large decline in the amount of violence.”
At the conclusion of the forum, Gaines emphasized the importance of black student organizations unifying to create effective strategies to keep peace at events.
“We must be on the same page before we do more,” he said. “We must have unity between our student organizations so that we don’t have miscommunication.”
Sheena Harrison can be reached at harri188@msu.edu.
