With raised fists and shouts of "Whose streets? Our streets," a crowd of Ball State University students marched down McKinley Avenue on Friday. The rally was sparked by a Thursday night incident during which a predominately black group of students said they were disrespected by university police.
Thursday's incident began when the rally's organizer, junior Ennis Adams, and the large group of students were playing a game of midnight tag on LaFollette Field. Kay Bales, dean of the Division for Student Affairs, said university officers received a call about a noise violation at LaFollette Field. An officer estimated the crowd at about 75 people, whom he asked to disperse, Bales said. They appeared to do that, she said.
A while later, more calls came in about a noisy crowd. This time it came from the other side of Worthen Arena, Bales said. She said a total of four officers came to the scene before the crowd dispersed for good. Students filed complaints, saying that the officers used foul language and forced the students to leave. None of the complaints had to do with racism, said Bales, who attended Friday's rally but did not march.
Adams, however, said the police officers treated the black participants differently than the few white participants. Officers from the University Police Department threatened Adams with jail for violating a noise ordinance, he said.
"You get tired of having to deal with these things," he said.
During the rally, junior Natalie Wesley held a sign that read "Hell no, we won't go."
"It just seems they always pinpoint the minority, and it seems they want us to leave," Wesley said.
Speaking to the crowd, Adams said many university groups failed to deliver on their promises of making Ball State a more tolerant place. Bales said she understood his concerns.
"It becomes frustrating when groups don't move as fast as we want them to," she said. "To get through the process, that does take time."
But senior Malcolm McIntyre, who was present at both the midnight tag event and rally, said he did not think the university was being as proactive as it should be. Miscommunication remains an issue between administration and students, he said.
Although many students showed up to Friday's rally, the fire usually always dies in a couple of weeks, McIntyre said. As a result, no one really deals with the issue even though it's happened constantly during his time at Ball State, he said.
"It's deeper than just one issue," McIntyre said. "It's really a whole one, two, three years worth of stuff. It's been going on, and people are just fed up with it."
Devin Day, president of the Black Student Association, said he hoped students wouldn't ignore the issue and appreciated those who were already addressing racism even before Thursday's incident. Several counseling psychology graduate students have collected more than 2,200 signatures on a "Stop Hate" banner, which will be available for more students to sign this week in the Art and Journalism Building.
"It's not a multicultural group's problem - they're taking it on like it's a campus problem," Day said. "I'm glad to see that they're out there doing that."
McIntyre said students planned to meet this week to further discuss Thursday's incident, and Wesley said she hoped good would come out of it.
"I hope the university and faculty and police are taking this into consideration and see that we all have feelings and that things can be changed," Wesley said.
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