Over the past nine weeks, the Clarion has featured several pieces on alleged racial profiling by Campus Safety.

On Feb. 14, Thomas Ware’s claim that Campus Safety questioned him because he was black appeared in the Senate Report. Ware asked the AUSA Senate to work on “awareness and some sort of accountability for Campus Safety” after he was stopped for questioning because he fit the description of the man Campus Safety was looking for.

Three weeks later, the Clarion interviewed both Ware and Campus Safety in a front page story detailing the event and raising questions of Campus Safety’s procedure.

In an unrelated event, the Arab Student Association reported an unnecessary presence of Campus Safety at a vigil sponsored by the organization. The Clarion reported the story on April 18, revealing not only Campus Safety’s disproportionate response, but also an unusually elaborate questioning process that Bassem Hassan, ASA organizer, said jeopardized his privacy and security because Campus Safety released his name to the Denver Police Department. Subsequently, the Denver police brought “three to four” squad cars to the vigil.

On May 2, a guest editorial commented on Campus Safety’s actions at the vigil. The editorial questioned why DU’s only form of security was so strongly overshadowing a peaceful vigil. One week later, a letter to the editor submitted by Hassan commented on the editorial, clarifying some of the events at the vigil.

The concern of students for Campus Safety’s procedures regarding racial profiling and unusual procedures for events of minority organizations on campus was finally brought before Chancellor Daniel Ritchie at the Chancellor’s Roundtable on May 1. After hearing from both Ware and Hassan, Ritchie said he would look into the two incidents and said that the university would comment on these issues.

The Clarion welcomes the administration’s concern about these two events involving Campus Safety. It is also encouraging that the AUSA Senate will sponsor a panel on racism on May 21. If these sensitive issues continue to go unresolved, they will eventualy impact the open and diverse student community all of us have been trying to build and develop at DU.