Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, April 29, 1990 TAG: 9004290044
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: The Washington Post
DATELINE: CHARLOTTESVILLE LENGTH: Long
Tension at the university came to a head two weeks ago when three Student Council officers called on Barnes to relinquish the office before he even assumed it. Last week, a second black student leader lost her bid for office after the original election, which she had won, was ruled invalid.
Calls for Barnes' ouster were not based on his color but his competence, according to the three student leaders - two whites and a student of Indian descent. They have since rescinded their request for Barnes to step down.
But that incident and others recently, have revealed what many students say are deep racial fault lines running through UVa's diverse student body, which over the last decade has included growing numbers of blacks, Asians and Hispanics.
"This university has not had a day [in recent weeks] that something racial has not occurred," said Trevon Gross, chairman of the Black Students Leadership Council.
"Race has been on everyone's mind," said Student Council President Ron Hohauser.
University officials say they are concerned about the turmoil swirling around the ordinarily genteel place that Thomas Jefferson planned as an "academical village" nearly 200 years ago.
"When disharmony exists along racial lines, it leads to more divisiveness," said Ernest Ern, vice president of student affairs.
UVa is not alone in experiencing racial tension. The level is high on many campuses, according to Howard Ehrlich at the Baltimore-based National Institute of Prejudice and Violence.
"We're quite convinced here that there's really a great deal of what we call ethno-violent tension on campuses," said Ehrlich. "It's not just a black-white matter. It cuts across all ethnic and racial lines."
The University of Virginia, which draws nearly one-third of its students from Northern Virginia, has grown increasingly diverse, partly in response to federal directives that it include more minority students. Since the autumn of 1979, the number of black students at the university has nearly doubled, while the proportion of blacks has risen from 5.2 percent of the student body to 8.3 percent. Nearly half of them come from out of state.
There's been a corresponding rise in the number of Asian and Hispanic students as well. Asians make up nearly 5 percent of the student body, and according to student leaders, are also wielding growing influence.
By all accounts, significant tensions at UVa first flared in late March, when a racist graffito was painted on a university bus stop heavily used by blacks. According to some of those who saw it, the graffito said "No Niggers."
Richard Turner, dean of Afro-American Affairs, said university officials removed the words as soon as they were reported about 8 a.m. "to spare students the mental anguish" of seeing them, but it became a topic of discussion and concern throughout the university.
The tension incited by that incident came to a climax late last week, when three student government officers called on Barnes to resign the office of president, which he is scheduled to formally assume next week. The three accused Barnes of neglecting his responsibilities as vice president for finance this year, mismanaging Student Council finances, keeping sloppy books, refusing to cooperate with other officers and exercising poor judgment.
The call for Barnes' ouster on April 19 coincided with the end of an emotional and noisy South African divestment rally at the campus's Rotunda. While "Fight the Power" blared on loudspeakers and students were being charged with trespassing, rally leaders announced to the crowd of 300 that Barnes had been asked to step down.
Many students thought Barnes had been targeted because of his participation in the rally, and an already tense situation was in danger of boiling over, participants and campus officials said.
According to several student leaders, an open forum organized April 20, at which Barnes was offered an apology by his critics, averted significant trouble at the university.
"I am quite certain that if we had not had that forum, where people were allowed to ventilate and express their concern, we would have had violence here at the University of Virginia," said Gross.
In spite of the forum, some students have continued to talk about a recall petition against Barnes, even though many student leaders have urged that the matter be dropped.
Those who oppose Barnes and the student government officers who asked him to resign last week have vehemently denied that their actions were racially motivated.
"The timing and Barnes's being black have made it a racial thing," said Cynthia Willbricht, one of the three council vice presidents who asked Barnes to step down and who now concede they erred. "It was maybe hasty on our part," she said. "I do think it's possible to work together. Hopefully, there'll be some changing on both sides."
Barnes has conceded that the Student Council ledgers were not up to date. He said his record keeping was poor because much of his mail, including council bills, was regularly taken from his box after his razor-thin victory, in a pattern of harassment, which included threatening notes on his car windshield and phone calls. Barnes said cooperation has been lacking among all the officers.
"If Barnes had been white, I think the other officers would have patched [any problems] up," said Dean Turner, who has drawn criticism from many students and faculty members for saying publicly that Barnes was targeted because of race.
Barnes and the three vice presidents have publicly agreed to put the incident behind them and move on.
"I admit I made mistakes this year," Barnes said in an interview this week. "But a lot of people have made mistakes [on the council].. . . It's time to go forward."
Barnes' detractors have said his most serious error in judgment came when he counted votes in the election this month for the Commerce School's Student Council representative. The victor in that election was a black woman protege of Barnes', who defeated the white male incumbent, Jack Marshall. Marshall, who had lost to Barnes in the earlier presidential election, then successfully contested the Commerce School vote on the grounds that Barnes, in supervising the election, was involved in a conflict of interest.
When the election was rerun Monday and Tuesday during this week's tense atmosphere, turnout was heavy and Marshall won by a landslide.
Much of the student body is still hurt, angry and confused about what has happened here recently, according to blacks and whites.
"White students can afford to ignore the whole controversy if they want, but black students can't help but be affected," said Ted Mills, a fourth-year student from Fairfax who heads the student counselor service. "Most student government types are very conservative. They . . .believe in the institutions and traditions here, and it escapes them how all this is a racial issue."
Black students "feel in a crisis situation. We feel under attack," said Lewis Anderson, a graduate student from Powhatan who is active in the Black Student Alliance.
May 1 is the day by which high school seniors accepted by the university must agree to attend. University officials said more black students than ever have been offered spaces in the freshman class. If the usual percentage accepts, next year's freshman class could have a record proportion of blacks, nearly 15 percent.
by CNB