MSU Ban On Dorm Door Door Whiteboards Aims To Curb Harassment

Students are speaking out against a decision by Michigan State University officials to get rid of the whiteboards on dorm room doors that students use to leave messages for one another. The university said the message boards will be removed in the fall because they’ve been used to harass some students.

Kat Cooper, a spokeswoman for MSU’s Residential Hospitality Services said no one incident prompted the ban, and that harassing messages are reported several times a month.

Removing the whiteboard won’t solve the greater underlying issues behind bullying, but may cut down on messages that are written on impulse, she said.

“These are mostly activities of opportunity. (Students) are walking down the hall and there’s a ready writing surface and a pen right there waiting for them,” Cooper told The Detroit News. “These are not things, generally, where people are targeting people.”

Today’s students communicate via social media or text messages. “The functionality of whiteboards used to outweigh the downsides,” Cooper told the Detroit Free Press.

However, Yamani Vinson, a junior who lives in Akers Hall, told the Detroit Free Press that students who are intent on making hateful comments won’t be deterred.

“People can write racist words on anything,” Vinson said. “A brick wall, a tree, or even a person’s body. Are we supposed to get rid of those things too?”

New students at MSU are required to complete training on cultural sensitivity and diversity, and the university has an anti-discrimination policy. Offensive messages left on whiteboards are reported to MSU’s Office of Institutional Equity, but the students who write them aren’t often identified, according to the report.

Photo by Ken Lund via Flickr Commons