The small elevator in the west wing of Wilson Hall is not much to look at.
Its bare walls and confined space don't merit much thought beyond the rider's destination. But last month, racial slurs appeared on its walls, the latest in a series of discriminatory incidents that have occurred across campus since August.
Now the walls are bare again. The messages —written in black marker — were cleaned off without repainting or repaneling. But the real message, that some students feel comfortable discriminating against others because of their race or sexual orientation, remains.
On the first floor of Wilson Hall, Jessica Haynes and Jon Beach sat at a table in an east wing study lounge, an open human anatomy book between them. The two were studying for an exam together, and neither really know what to make of the 22 incidents that have disrupted campus this school year.
"There's no tension in the hall," said Haynes, who is black, looking thoughtfully at the ceiling of the room. "I think people come in from all over and vandalize stuff."
Haynes, a kinesiology sophomore, said she thinks the incidents occur because students come from all different backgrounds and comfort levels. She wasn't sure if some kind of diversity training should be part of freshman orientation. After all, Haynes said, people don't like to be forced into anything. She said students build multiracial relationships over time.
"It happens without you realizing it," Haynes said. "It's not like people are going to say, 'Today I am going to make friends with an Asian person.'"
Beach, who is white, said a diversity session would be beneficial.
"Stereotypes remain because of a lack of interaction," the kinesiology junior said.
Beach said he grew up in a small, mostly white community, and never had a chance to interact with people with different backgrounds until he got to MSU.
Lack of interaction and understanding leads a lot of students to seek others of their own race in living arrangements, said Tom Alexander, a white resident mentor on the fifth floor of East Wilson Hall. Alexander, a computer science sophomore, said many of the students on his "mostly white" floor are from backgrounds similar to Beach's.
"They're not used to diversity," Alexander said. "If they find out they have a black roommate, they'll change it without even making an effort to get to know them."
He said many students now use Facebook.com to see who they will be living with when they come to campus, and some will change rooms if the person they are matched up with is from a different race.
Both Haynes and Beach thought where students choose to live helps determine who they meet and interact with.
"I wanted my friend to move over here with me this year," Haynes said. "But she did not want to leave Akers because all her friends are there."
Haynes said her friend was black and wanted to live with other black students. She said most of her friends in Wilson Hall were white. She went to Southfield Christian High School, a predominately white school, however, which might be why she is comfortable in a mostly white hall, she said.
But even in high school, Haynes knew which dorms at MSU were the "black" ones.
"Growing up we heard that Hubbard was where the black dudes took the stereos out of their cars and put them up in their rooms," Haynes said.
Across the sun-drenched campus, Akers Hall stands in the shadow of the twin towers of Hubbard Hall. Walking into the cafeteria on a typical day, self segregation is evident. Most tables are surrounded by a collection of white students. Here and there small pockets of black students, sitting two or three to a table, stand out.
At one such table, two black freshmen, Theresa Jackson and Salihah Copedge finished their salads as they talked about what causes incidents of discrimination.
"It would help if the university wasn't so segregated," Jackson said. "If they mixed up the dorms, maybe that would make sure it was diverse — really diverse."
Copedge said some classes can help students see the value of diversity and how important it is to interact with people unlike themselves.
"The higher you go in education, the more you grow up," Copedge said. "When people first come to MSU, everybody sticks to what they know."
On that note, both Copedge and Jackson called the acts reported on campus "immature." They also both agreed that some sort of freshman diversity training was a good idea.
"Even if (students) thought 'Oh, it's another history lesson,'" Jackson said. "They should still do it because this is the real world and you need to know it regardless if you like it or not."
Across the dining room, no-preference freshman William Childs said adding another session to orientation was not the answer.
"It's just a minority who are doing these things," said Childs, who is white. "There are a lot more things to worry about as a freshman. I don't think you should punish everybody for the actions of a few."
Childs put down his last piece of pizza before saying he was out of town during campuswide hall meetings that took place a few weeks back dealing with discriminatory issues, but he avoided those types of events anyway.
"Since I am not a racist, why should I have to go?" Childs said. "I mean, I could be part of the solution, but …"
Childs paused, before ending with, "I think it's just different situations."
On the first floor of Akers Hall, a group of black students huddled around a table in a dimly lit study room, while lunch continued upstairs.
The students make up the newly formed Elite Dance Team, and were working through their first official meeting.
"The police presence in Hubbard Hall is offensive to the black community," premedical sophomore Kyle Harrington said. "Whenever something happens in Hubbard or Akers, it gets broadcast to the whole campus. It gets published in The State News."
He said it was unfair the way administrators from both halls treat the students who live there.
"There are more security cameras in (the Hubbard Hall Sparty's Convenience Store) than any other," Harrington said. "If that's not racial profiling, I don't know what is."
Accounting sophomore Frank Lamarr Tyson was quick to disagree.
"I like the cops," Tyson said. "They're here to keep ignorant people away from campus."
Tyson, who is from Chicago, said a lot of the trouble on campus comes from people coming here from Detroit. He said the police don't bother the students who are just going about their business.
One of the students calls the rest of their attention back to the task at hand, setting membership dues for the semester. Off to one side of the room, mechanical engineering freshman Frank Lee Tramble is getting another piece of pizza from a pile of boxes on a smaller table.
He said having police around was good, but their presence is inconsistent.
"They're always there, except when something goes down — then they're not there," Tramble said.
He mentioned the incident that took place in Hubbard Hall earlier this year, when three men entered the hall with a handgun and a water bottle filled with gasoline.
"Where were the police?" he said. "That shouldn't have happened."
Tramble thought some of the incidents of discrimination could be addressed by the university promoting greater discussion between students of different backgrounds.
"I live with one other black guy and two white guys," Tramble said. "One night, we got together and talked about stereotypes, and it was really good to hear what they thought.
"Something like that needs to happen during freshman orientation."
Josh Jarman can be reached at jarmanjo@msu.edu.
