WSU players accused of racial taunts

PULLMAN – Two Washington State University basketball players have been accused by a student of making racist gestures, sparking a series of protests, including one in Beasley Coliseum during Thursday night’s game.

Head coach Dick Bennett has vehemently denied that the players did anything wrong.

Freshmen Robbie Cowgill of Austin, Texas, and Alex Kirk of Prosser, Wash., became the target of protests after another student, Nina Kim, reported that the two had made inappropriate gestures at her while she was working at the school’s Multicultural Center in the Compton Union Building.

“They were coming by twice each week on the days that I was working here during the first three weeks of this semester,” Kim told the Moscow-Pullman Daily News.

She works near the front of the Multicultural Center office. “They’d see me through the windows and jump up and down and make animal gestures, like monkeys, and animal noises. … (Once) one pulled the edges of his eyes back to make slant-eyes at me. … Two of the guys were mainly doing this, in a group of four or five.”

But Bennett said Cowgill and Kirk have been unfairly and incorrectly singled out. Fliers have circulated around campus with the players’ pictures and accusatory language, and the word “WARNING!” across the top.

“Robbie and Alex weren’t even the ones who did it,” Bennett said. “They even got the wrong kids. There were a bunch of them. Robbie and Alex did nothing. They never said anything.

“A group of our young kids (basketball players) went by and they knocked on the window, waved, and did goofy college things. They weren’t trying to make a mess of anything and least of all they had absolutely no desire or intent to do anything untoward racially. This is just not them.”

Cowgill and Kirk were part of that group, which routinely walked past the office en route to the dining hall, Bennett said.

Kim did not respond to multiple phone calls and WSU refused to make any basketball players available for comment.

Earlier this week, Kim’s accusation helped prompt an on-campus march of about 200 people.”It’s related to (the alleged incident), but it’s also showing that there’s a history of racism and sexism and homophobia at WSU,” said senior Angela Taniguchi, one of the organizers of the protest and a friend of Kim’s. “And this was just sort of a catalyst incident that happened to get students really interested and invested in the issue and talking about ways that we can change the campus climate to make it better.”

Taniguchi’s group circulated a brochure detailing what they say are events of inappropriate behavior on campus in the last decade, including the use of racial slurs and harassment by some students, racial graffiti, and a delay in filling minority-recruiting positions.

Taniguchi said the fliers with the players’ pictures were not produced by her group.

Police investigated Kim’s claim and decided not to press any charges, passing the incident along to WSU’s student conduct board. The two players were pulled off the team bus just before it departed for Oregon State University on Feb. 9 to meet with the board, delaying the team’s trip.

The conduct board has not yet released a finding of fault or no-fault, causing consternation on both sides of the alleged incident. Board director Elaine Voss declined to comment, citing confidentiality concerns.

“As of right now they’ve reviewed it and the findings are supposed to be confidential,” said Ron Sanchez, WSU’s director of basketball operations.

Sanchez, Bennett and Taniguchi said they hope to receive some official word from WSU soon.

“I am extremely upset because they singled out the best and the brightest we have to offer, who … did nothing that they were accused of doing,” Bennett said. “To have their faces on posters with the things said about them that have been said is slanderous.”

Said Taniguchi: “(Kim’s) picture and her name has been all over the paper and the news. That would be difficult on anybody, (not to mention) that this person has basically been terrorized. And the university, nothing’s been done about that. I think that’s a little hard on everybody.”