Gonzaga To Study Why People Hate University Says New Institute Will Be First Of Its Kind In U.S.
Gonzaga University, a private school where incidents of racial and sexual harassment have been reported in the past three years, said Monday it will launch a research institute to examine why people hate.
The Institute for Action Against Hate will be the first clearinghouse on a U.S. campus to provide information on hate and hate crimes, Gonzaga officials said.
“This is an opportunity to take on a difficult issue,” said Bob Bartlett, Gonzaga’s director of cultural diversity. “It’s a hard, ugly and complicated issue. However, someone needs to tackle it.”
The board of trustees of the Jesuit-owned university approved creation of the institute during a meeting in Seattle Friday.
The trustees did not establish a specific budget for the institute, but charged the university with raising most of the institute’s money from public and private grants and donations.
Plans call for a director to be hired next year who would coordinate the institute’s research, publications and course offerings for college and high school classrooms. The institute would act as a clearinghouse for information and experts on hate and hate crimes and would manage an annual lecture series.
The idea for the institute originated at Gonzaga’s Law School, where African-American students in recent years have been the target of racial harassment. Some gay and lesbian students also were victims of harassment this fall.
About 10 percent of Gonzaga’s 4,475 students are ethnic minorities, university officials said.
The institute’s advisory board will include representatives from the leading U.S. organizations that fight hate crimes, including the Southern Poverty Law Center, the American Jewish Committee and the Northwest Coalition Against Malicious Harassment.
Bartlett said the institute will differ from others because it will tap Gonzaga’s scholars to help answer the question of why people hate, and how that can be changed.
“This is a different question than how to respond to instances of hate,” he said. “We’re on the cutting edge of something here and historically the Jesuits have not backed off on hard issues of social justice.”
, DataTimes