University President John T. Casteen, III issued a statement yesterday responding to allegations that a Medical Center employee used a racial epithet during a conversation at a recent staff meeting, calling the usage "offensive" and "insulting."
Following reports of the alleged Nov. 10 comment, Medical Center CEO R. Edward Howell conducted interviews with the person's supervisor and the four other employees who were present during the remark to ensure a consistent interpretation of events, Casteen said.
Each person interviewed recounted a conversation between employees about football teams they each favored, Howell said. The conversation later turned to a discussion of controversial team names, including the Washington Redskins.
Howell reported that the offender "said something like this: 'I can't believe in this day and age that there's a sports team in our nation's capital named the Redskins. That is as derogatory to Indians as having a team called Niggers would be to blacks.'"
Though Howell said no staff members said they were personally offended by the remark, they said they would have preferred if the word had not been used.
"They also reported no previous indication that the individual's language or behavior to suggest racial insensitivity," but rather that the comment was "an unfortunate, one-time use of language," Howell said in his report.
In response to the alleged remark, the Staff Union at U.Va. is sponsoring a "Protest Against Racism at U.Va. and the U.Va. Medical Center After a Recent Racial Incident" today at noon.
"It doesn't really matter in what context this word was used," Staff Union President Jan Cornell said in a statement, adding that employees have reported other similar incidents.
"I will continue to inform the U.Va. administration about racism, discrimination, mistreatment of employees by managers and retaliation issues until U.Va. is a safe place to work for everyone of every race," she said.
University spokesperson Carol Wood said the administration decided earlier this week it was necessary to issue a statement to clarify the facts of the incident and to assure the community that appropriate action has been taken.
"We felt it was important to let the University community know what had transpired," Wood said. "We were trying to reaffirm that something like this is serious and deserves attention."
Though Medical Center policy prevents information regarding personnel matters from being released, in the statement, Howell reported that a "follow-up with employee was recommended."
In an e-mail sent to a black faculty e-mail list, History Prof. Julian Bond, national chair of the NAACP, called for the employee to make a public apology and take sensitivity training.
"My first impulse is that this should be a dismissible infraction -- but free speech protections I hold dear tell me that shouldn't be so," Bond wrote, adding that the administration "ought to disavow such language."
In his statement, Casteen said he can imagine that the speaker did not intend to be offensive, but that he is "sad" to see such language used in the workplace.
"The University expects all members of the University community to be alert to the rights and dignity of all our people and also alert to racial and other insults," he said, adding that all members of the community should feel comfortable in reporting any "demeaning" incidents.
"We share and ought to welcome the responsibility for making the University community a welcoming environment for everyone," he said.
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