On June 1st, UTC Chancellor Steven Angle released a statement titled “Racism and the Pandemic.” While we as UTC students agree that racism runs rampant through our nation, there are some key differences between racism and a disease. One does not choose to be sick, and more importantly racism is an active choice that is taught and learned through generations. Racism is systemic, and it is something that one willfully takes part in. While a disease may have a vaccine, cure, or treatment, the only cure for racism is action. One must actively work to unlearn their biases and make real change within their community. And while having a disease may kill you, racism does not harm the racist. The oppressor does not suffer from the racist system that they create. Instead it is the oppressed that suffer from the long lasting effects of racism in our country and in the Chattanooga community. UTC students and members of the community found Chancellor Angle’s comparison to be tone deaf and lacking any resolve for real change. That is why on June 7th, the signatures and comments of over 1,000 unsatisfied UTC students and Chattanooga community members were sent to Chancellor Angle, asking him the crucial question: do Black lives matter? Those signatures were ignored and the question was left unanswered.

In his most recent statement released on June 15th, Chancellor Angle released a list of promises to help end racism on campus including a series of five open forum meetings during the fall semester to hear stories and experiences from the campus community. He also delegated tasks to members of UTC’s Executive Leadership Team. These tasks range from a promise to “review our physical space to consider opportunities to better reflect our commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion” to “collaboration between our institution and our community to identify the role we do and should play in the broader context of our region.” We say these promises of reviews and investigations do not go far enough, because institutions like the American university have no incentive to hold themselves accountable when the act of exposing racism damages their image. Encouraging students to relive instances of racism they’ve encountered on campus does little to provide justice for those students, and does nothing to prevent further incidents from occurring on campus. UTC students are looking for real, quantifiable change. We pay tuition every year and we should have a say in how our money gets spent. 

These are the demands of UTC students. UTC-PD must be disarmed, and UTC must divest from the UTC-PD budget and invest in underpaid faculty, staff, and working students by allocating funds for higher wages, scholarships, and counseling resources. UTC must provide essential mental health and counseling resources for students of color who have experienced hate crimes and racial discrimination. UTC must establish a mandatory racial and cultural sensitivity education program for all faculty, staff, and students. UTC must create a student run system for reporting racism and hate crimes. UTC must fully back the Chattanooga community in their call to divest from the Chattanooga Police Department budget and reinvest into Black and Brown communities that have been impacted by gentrification due to UTC’s downtown presence. UTC administration must take an affirmative stance on the  Black Lives Matter movement by condemning local  police brutality and racial injustice. They must condemn the Chattanooga Police Department for the murder of JaVario Eagle, and criticize the Hamilton County Sheriff’s Department for their deployment of tear gas on peaceful protesters on May 31st, 2020.

Since our petition was created, there has been increasing evidence of racism on UTC’s campus including recent allegations of “racial insensitivity” within a UTC fraternity. On top of that, UTC students are stepping forward and anonymously sharing stories of their encounters with racism on campus. One student had this to share:

“I was walking back to [Johnson Obear student housing] from the library late on a weekend. There was this group of boys wearing frat shirts with matching letters. I didn't know what the letters meant and I regretfully didn't draw them out when I got back to my room. Anyway, if you recall the scene from Finding Nemo where the seagulls are yelling "mine mine mine", that is what they were doing to me. Out of nowhere they all started yelling the N word at me while pointing and laughing (they seemed intoxicated). I looked around to see if they were actually talking to me and that's when I realized the only people on the street were them and I. I was mortified and afraid that they were going to hurt me so I ran back to my room and cried for hours till I fell asleep.”

This is just a fraction of one story shared by a UTC student. Racism is a problem at UTC and the students are demanding action. In Chancellor Steven Angle’s own words, “We cannot sit on the sidelines and see lives wasted. Silence and inaction are not the choices we can afford to make.” Please join us on Chamberlain Field at UTC’s campus on June 26th at 3pm for a student-organized demonstration of community solidarity.

For more information, contact:

Name: Jennah Hyppolite

Phone: 8622904043Email: Endracismutc@gmail.com

See our full demand list and petition here: bit.ly/utcstudentpetition