PC Students, Faculty Rally Against Racial Profiling

PC Students, Faculty Rally Against Racial Profiling

The main gates of the Providence College campus were crowded with members of the campus community on Monday, May 4, protesting racial profiling by campus security officers, a demand to fire Safety and Security Director Jack Leyden, and an end to college events at the Renaissance and Hilton hotels because of their anti-union stance.

Cedric de Leon, associate professor of sociology, led the protest, which was held in a response to a growing backlash against the cause for diversity and racial justice on campus, he said, He added that the college has yet to enforce a racial profiling policy established in 2013.

De Leon said that he faces racial profiling daily on campus. 

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“I just wanted want to make sure you weren’t a terrorist,” de Leon said he was told when a campus security guard stopped him and saw the faculty decal on his car.

Professor, Students Decry Profiling

De Leon said that despite repeated talks with the college’s administration, nothing has been done to investigate the complaints, security officers have not been disciplined, and that Leyden should be fired because of this inaction.

Julia Jordan-Zachery, one of three self-identified black female professors at PC, said that she has been profiled eight times on campus and that it is a response to the stories of the past. 

“For seven years I’ve been the target of racial profiling. The expense to my mind and body is extensive. I have no control over the color of my skin,” she said.  

Jordan-Zachery said that there is now an obvious shift in language when being profiled by the security officers. They also ask where she is going.

Jordan-Zachery said she’s brought her plight several times to her dean and the college president, and each time the answer was, “Julia, I am sorry this is happening to you,” she said.

Because of the failure to enforce college policy, de Leon said, Leyden must be fired and the officer responsible for profiling Jordan-Zachery must be disciplined.

“Each time one of us is profiled, it has an effect on all of us,” Jordan-Zachery said.

College Officials React

Steven Maurano, associate vice-president for public affairs and community relations, said that he believes the policy is being enforced and that no complaints were made before Jordan-Zachery filed a formal complaint in October 2014.

Maurano added that there would most likely be additional training for the officers going forward. “We’re all learning on a regular basis,” he said.

Graduating PC senior Binyam Tsegaye spoke about his frustration at being questioned yearly by campus police officers. He said that those students of color now coming into the college would have to deal with what he did.

“They don’t want me. They just need me,” for the diversity quota, he said.

 De Leon said, “This is all apart of a broader problem of institutional racism.”

De Leon continued the protest against holding college events at Providence’s Renaissance or Hilton Hotels, both owned by the Procaccianti Group, because of the owners’ failure to respond in a legal manner to the workers’ efforts to organize a union. He demanded that PC refrain from any business with the hotels until management grants the workers a fair process to decide on unionizing. Workers organized over two years ago, but the hotel chain executives have yet to discuss the matter. 

About 50 students clapped, cheered, and held signs of protest throughout the 35-minute rally. 

The rally ended with a call by de Leon for full participation for all members of the college community and a march around the campus.

A security officer at the campus entrance’s guard station was asked his opinion of rally, but refused to answer, saying that the officers are not allowed to comment.