UC Santa Cruz receives reports of racist disruptions to classes

SANTA CRUZ, Calif. (KION) School officials at UC Santa Cruz are condemning online prejudice after they said they received multiple reports of "racist and offensive" disruptions to classes held via Zoom, especially against Asians and Asian-Americans.

In a statement released by Chancellor Cynthia Larive and Interim Campus Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor Lori Kletzer, they said incidents like that are not tolerated and that they are taking the actions very seriously.

The university said that the disruptive incidents and racist posts seen on social media are an attempt to divide the campus community and undermine its principles.

"We must come together—against racism, sexism, xenophobia, and white supremacy—and collectively denounce all forms of hate, bias, and discrimination. While this behavior is never acceptable, it comes at a time when our community members are already burdened with concerns for loved ones, for our first responders and medical community, and for the many people currently battling COVID-19," Larive and Kletzer said in the statement.

The university said some have used the pandemic to incite hatred and xenophobia, especially against Asian and Asian-American people. The school describes attempts to blame coronavirus on any group as "discriminatory and unacceptable."

Larive and Kletzer also took the opportunity to apologize to those who have experienced the disruptions and remind everyone not to share video conferencing links in public forums. They also shared the school's Keep Teaching website, which can be found here, with information about how to keep Zoom meetings secure.

If a class session held via Zoom is disrupted, members of the UC Santa Cruz community are asked to open a ticket at help@ucsc.edu with the subject line "ZoomBombing in..." with the name of the course it happened in. In the ticket, include the Meeting ID, CruzID of host, time it happened, whether they used screen sharing and any other details. Students and faculty are also asked to go to https://reporthate.ucsc.edu for more information about reporting incidents during Zoom meetings.

Formal complaints about harassment or discrimination based on a protected identity can be reported online using a form on the Equity and Equal Protection homepage. Sexual violence or harassment can be reported through the Title IX Office.

For more information about classroom disruption and conduct, email conduct@ucsc.edu. For incidents that do not fall in the categories listed, they can be submitted for review by conduct staff here.