Walking down the dark Cow Path, freshman Eden South said she felt safer than walking down lit McKinley Avenue.
After having racial slurs yelled at her out of a passing car and watching passengers in another car throw eggs at students, South said she would rather walk down a dark path than the main road through campus.
South is one of many black students at Ball State University who recently experienced racist verbal abuse from drivers along McKinley and University avenues.
Derick Virgil, director of the Multicultural Center, said he had collected 10 reports of drive-by abuse since Oct. 1.
"I've been here five years, and this has been the most consistent it has happened since I've been here," Virgil said.
Loren Ray, Student Government Association senator, who brought the issue up at the SGA meeting, said he had heard about 19 specific incidents. While most incidents have been limited to yelling, one woman was shot at with a water gun, Ray said.
Virgil also said one woman believes her abusers circled back to yell more.
Freshman Brandie Smiley said when she arrived at Ball State, she did not expect this level of racism. Smiley and her friends have been verbally abused by passing cars, including being called "niggers" and being told to "go back to your plantations."
"You get angry for a minute, and then you calm down so you don't do anything stupid," she said. "As a matter of fact, after they do what they do, they speed off immediately."
While the incidents have not affected her day-to-day activities, and she is still comfortable at school, she said she and a group of approximately 50 students are trying to find a way to stop the incidents.
"I'm more aware now," Smiley said. "I'm just tired of it - tired of watching my back all the time."
The majority of the students fighting back are freshman or underclassmen, she said.
Upperclassmen like senior Malcolm Little said there has always been racial discrimination and abuse at Ball State.
"First off, I was like, 'That's jacked up,' but then I was like, 'This is common,'" Little said.
He said he learned to ignore most of the racial slurs he heard. Little thinks it is good the younger students are fighting back and said he would support them.
"It hurts - it really hurts, and not too many people understand that," he said. "They called me this. 'Well, it's just a word.' No, that name is deep-seeded."
Part of the reason he and his friends don't fight back is what he sees as a lack of university support for protecting its minority students, Little said.
"Ball State's not going to tell you that part about it," he said. "It's a great place for everybody to come to, but when stuff happens, they're not going to do anything about it because they have the check."
Ray and Little mentioned an incident Tuesday night where they said it took the police 40 to 45 minutes to respond to a call concerning a girl being yelled at while crossing McKinley Avenue.
Officer Michael Baker Jr. said he was at the scene five minutes after receiving the call. The call however, was not placed until 20 minutes after the incident as the victim did not have a cell phone, Baker said.
When he arrived, he said he checked the scene and took down a description of the truck the abusers drove but was unable to do much more without the license plate number. He said he wished he could do more but he could not without witnessing the event or having more information.
Smiley said she understands the difficulty police have in trying to catch people yelling racist comments.
"It's very random, so I can't just say I'd like them to sit on the corner," she said.
For the moment, Virgil recommends students travel in groups, attempt to record license plate numbers and call police or 911 when something happens, he said.
"We want to instruct everyone on campus to be tolerant of people, caring of other individuals and not to do this sort of activity," he said. "If indeed there are students on campus perpetrating his type of activity, and we catch them, they will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law."
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