Over the past year, there have been several events that have shown Western Washington University is not the safe and inclusive campus it claims to be. First, it was the series of racially charged death threats on Yik Yak that caused classes to be canceled the next day. Even more recently, there has been a stream of anti-semitic bullying on campus, not including other cases of misgendering students and the defacement of gender-neutral bathrooms. There have also been 12 cases of sexual harassment from 2012 to 2014, along with the Western Aces (the on-campus asexual, aromantic spectrum club) advocating the corrective rape of an asexual student with, like most other cases, little to no repercussions occurring for the rapist in question. These are to name only a few of the non-inclusive problems that have arisen on campus.

Granted, WWU has made some efforts to try and correct or fix these issues. President Bruce Shepard did cancel classes after the death threats on Yik Yak. Also, 19-year-old student Tysen Cambell was arrested and banned from campus for making the notorious “let's lynch her” death threat. Also, following the series of anti-semitic bullying of WWU students, Bruce Shepard has enacted a task force that would “recommend ways to educate and help people better understand the impact of anti-semitic actions.” These are steps in the right direction, but they are rather treating the symptoms, not the illness.

True, the task force will help educate students on anti-semitic issues, which is very much needed, but how about other issues? The incidents showed clear lack of understanding and education on the resident advisor's part. One of the incidents involved racial slurs and a swastika written on the whiteboard attached to the student's door at Fairhaven. There was a town hall meeting, but the student was repeatedly told he overreacted by other students and should know that a swastika is a peace sign in some cultures. Which, yes, is true, but the swastika used in several ancient cultures is either a mirrored image or rotated image of the Nazi one, and it was clearly obvious which version of the swastika was drawn. The RAs and RDs running the meeting should have stepped in and been more sensitive on the matter.

This, also, isn't entirely their fault. RA and RD training, as I've been told by many students who've taken the class, includes little to no sensitivity training when it comes to issues of race, gender, sexuality, and so forth. The training on those issues in the RA class during the spring is sorely outdated and in dire need of improvement. The same goes for the sensitivity training of professors. Sensitivity training differs from department to department, but the little that does exist isn’t mandatory. And when professors use derogatory slurs, little to no action is taken against them, which is part of why issues like misgendering persist in the classroom setting.

There have also been several cases of defamation of gender-neutral bathroom signs on campus. These actions, along with the racial death threats, are actions that should have subsequent actions set in place to punish such students. The arrest of Tysen Cambell, and the jail sentence for the maximum time allotted to him, made him a pariah rather than solving the problem at hand. For starters, he was the only one punished for the racial death threats even though several students were party to the incident. This controversial and extreme punishment only caused further divide between students at WWU and gave more reason for further flames on both sides to boil over. What should have happened, and what should happened for the defamation of gender-neutral bathrooms, is that all students should have been punished accordingly, and with proper sensitivity training so they learn from their actions.

Not to mention that Tysen Campbell’s trial, the death threats, along with the ongoing defamation of gender-neutral bathrooms and ongoing sexual harassment of WWU students, have been swept under the rug. Many petitions and protests have been made like those of the Student Assembly for Power and Liberation Demands (WWU) (which I don’t entirely agree with). Petitions like this one do point out current issues that exist on campus, but it was completely ignored. No actions were taken to solve any problems put forth by the petitions and protests made this past year.

Actions for these situations include expanding accessibility of sensitivity training. Not to mention that when it comes to sexual harassment cases, WWU should act under the jurisdiction of Title IX, listen to the victims of sexual harassment, and proceed further according to the law instead of outright ignoring these cases as they have been. Accessibility and the ability to use gender neutral bathrooms also falls under Title IX, which, again, investigation must be put forth and punish the students responsible to this destruction of public property accordingly.

Speaking of issues pertaining to the trans and gender-non-conforming community, there have been ongoing issues pertaining to gender-neutral housing. Gender-neutral housing, as it stands, is barely advertised or made known to the student body, not to mention the extra amount of paperwork involved to just apply, further making gender-neutral housing inaccessible, especially to incoming freshmen.

And speaking of safe spaces, can we also talk about the dismal Ethnic Student Center and Queer Resource Center within the Associated Students Center? Both the ESC and the QRC are found on the fifth floor of the Viking Union, extremely inconveniently, and in rooms barely bigger than a closet. Both of them have very little campus presence which does no good for helping provide for the students they represent. Similarly, barely anyone knows of them as a resource, and if no one knows they exist, what good are they?

Continuing on about safe spaces, when it comes to on-campus psychologists and therapists, none of them are trained to deal with issues of race, sexuality or gender, which is a problem when students need help with issues pertaining to race, sexuality and gender. Most of them can’t go off campus for help when many POC (people of color) students don’t have the insurance or funds to go off campus, and/or are in the closet about their sexuality and/or gender and need help and anonymity so they aren’t disowned by friends or family who are often the ones helping to pay for their education.

Several persistent issues on this campus prevent WWU from being as inclusive as it wants to claim it is. While we can appreciate that WWU is safer than quite a few other campuses, that doesn't mean it can’t do better. A lot better. WWU needs to learn that education and understanding, especially now, is key for moving forward on issues like these and the well-being of its students.