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PRESS RELEASES FROM: (click on dates)
Pipe Dream - dates: 3/31, 4/4
Press & Sun-Bulletin - dates: 3/30, 4/2a,4/2b, 4/12, 4/14, 5/1, 5/2,5/3
New York Times - dates:
Other documents:
SUNY-B EXPELS ONLY ONE ASSAILANT IN ANTI-ASIAN BIAS ATTACK, May 2, 2000
ASU DEMANDS
1. The ASU demands an immediate apology from the Administration
for the tardiness of its response. Waiting almost two weeks to
release any sort of reaction to the attack signals great
ineffectiveness. Releasing a statement that condemns student
violence whether it is race related or not does jeopardize the
case, nor does it take almost two weeks to produce. The
Administration failed to act when the student body desperately
needed assurance of their personal safety.
2. The ASU demands the immediate expulsion of the attackers in
this incident. In regards to this particular case, we insist
upon the immediate expulsion of Nicholas Richetti and Chad
Scott. Richetti's involvment in another assault earlier that
night, and Scott's involvement in a prior incident at Denny's
indicate to ASU that their behavior is not just an isolated
incident, but rather, one event in a pattern of violence.
Protecting the student body requires that these suspects be
permanently removed from campus.
3. The ASU demands the hiring of 2 full time counselors trained
in Asian American Affairs. Asian students comprise of more than
20 percent of campus and we need someone whose knowledge of the
Asian/Asian-American culture can assist in times of trauma and
doubt. Especially in light of the recent incidents, students
need trained professionals with whom they can discuss their
concerns and fears.
4. The ASU demands that the Administration produce a specific
plan listing what they have done so far to help the victim, and
what they will continue to do to see that injustice is done in
this case. ASU wishes to be heavily involved in these matters
which concern the Asian/Asian-American community. Whether it is
assisting in the hiring of new staff or discussing the plan of
action for the assault, ASU needs to be involved so as to ensure
that actions taken will happen quickly and effectively.
5. The ASU demands an increase in those trained to educate
students about Asian and Asian American culture. In Dr. Sommers'
letter to the ASU, he writes, "We will continue to work
expediently to bring closure to this incident." ASU firmly
believes that closure to this incident will not occur simply
with token actions taken to promote diversity. Closure will only
occur when the student body can be sure that incidents such as
the one that occurred on February 27, 2000 will never happen
again. Educators specializing in Asian and Asian-American
Affairs, hired with the approval of ASU, are essential if the
University wishes to promote and sustain its reputation as a
diverse institution.
6. The ASU demands that the athletic department and faculty
release a statement condemning the incident at CIW. We believe
that the CIW incident does not reflect in any way the student
body, the wrestling team or athletics at Binghamton University.
ASU requests that these departments reassure us in this belief.
7. The ASU demands the hiring of 2 full time counselors trained
in Asian American Affairs. Asian students comprise more than 20
percent of campus and we need someone whose knowledge of the
Asian/Asian-American culture can assist in times of trauma and
doubt. Especially in light of the recent incidents, students
need trained professionals with whom they can discuss their
concerns and fears.
8. The Asu demands for an Asian Studies Major to increase those
trained to educate students about Asian American culture and an
open search for a tenured senior faculty member to direct and
develop Asian American Studies at Binghamton University. In Dr.
Summers' letter to the ASU, he writes, "We will continue to work
expediently to bring closure to this incident." ASU firmly
belives that closure to this incident will not occur simply with
token actions taken to promote diversity. Closure will only
occur when the student body can be sure that incidents such as
the one that occured on February 27, 2000 will never happen
again. Educators specializing in Asian-American Affairs, hired
with the approval of ASU, are essential if the University wishes
to promote and sustain its reputation as a diverse institution.
9. The ASU demands an Asian American Cultural Center.
PRESS RELEASES
Pipe Dream
April 04, 2000
ASU reps. meet with DeFleur
by MATT KENSEY
Staff Writer
Six representatives of the Asian Student Union brought nine
demands to its meeting with administrators Monday night. One was
discussed by the conference's end.
Instead, the two sides spent much of the hour-and-a-half meeting
ironing out administrative details such as future meeting times,
agendas, and a person to record the minutes of dis-cussions that
are intended to heal the campus' wounded race relations, said
Jason Kim, president of the Korean Student Union.
"It wasn't slow because of our part," said May Nazareno,
university vice president for multicultural affairs and member
of the ASU contingent. "We came in solid and they weren't
expecting that."
Nazareno added that she and other members of the group spent
many hours preparing for the discussion, and were disappointed
by Vice President for Student Affairs Rodger Summers and
President Lois B. DeFleur's apparent underestimation of the
group. DeFleur only stayed for a portion of the
conference.
"There's a very specific image of a student. I think today we
defied that because of our professionalism," Nazareno said.
Summers said that he found the students to be well prepared.
"It was obvious the students spent some time thinking about the
meeting," Summers said. "We had some very good conversations."
The conference came about after a March 15 demonstration where
over 500 students overtook the first and second floor of the
Couper Administration Building. The protest addressed what ASU
members called a tardy response to a Feb.27 assault that left
one Asian-American student, John E. Lee, with a fractured skull.
Three State University of New York at Binghamton wrestlers face
felony gang assault charges in connection with the fracas.
Monday's meeting started at 6:30 p.m. and continued until about
8 p.m. According to Summers, the two sides agreed on appointing
a recorder to make minutes for the conferences, to summarize the
goings on of each session 15 minutes before the appointed end,
to make an agenda in anticipation of every meeting, and to meet
6 p.m. April 12 to further discuss the ASU's demands. Summers
said the ASU only had time to partially present one of its
demands.
"I believe it was a bit ambitious to try and do everything in
one night," Summers added.
According to Kim, the administra-tion had agreed to meet with
the stu-dents for two hours, but when they sat down at the
discussion table, Summers told them he had a previous engage-
ment at 8pm.
Kim added that he felt the admin-istration dragged its feet in
the matter, but that some progress had been made as well.
"A lot of students lost a lot of sleep in regards to this
matter,” Kim, said. "If we had more time the meeting might have
been more fruitful.”
Summers assured the university community that the administration
was pursuing the issue to its fullest extent.
“We talked about some issues that might have been uncomfortable
(for the administration)," Summers said. Our goal is to assure
students that this is a safe place to be and we’re going to work
towards that goal."
When asked why a racially moti-vated crime like police have
judged this case to be might assume a more serious scope than
one with other motivations, both Nazareno and Kim replied that
the intent of the action, not just its severity, were what made
the crime so reprehensible.
"It doesn't have to do with any specific altercation, it has to
do with the shape of their eyes, the color of their skin," Kim
said.
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Binghamton Press & Sun - Bulletin, April 14, 2000
Asian students end talks at BU 4/14/00
By GEORGE BASLER
Staff Writer
Talks between Asian-American students and
Binghamton University administrators have
broken down with a top administrator charging
the students are more interested in confrontation
than dialogue.
A fact sheet released Thursday by the university's
Office of University Relations said representatives
of the Asian Student Union walked out of a meeting
Wednesday with school administrators when their
new "verbal demand" that all future meetings be open
to the public was turned down.
"By walking out of the meeting, this group of students
has plainly indicated they do not have an interest in
pursuing our dialogue. I find this to be disturbing and
unfortunate," said Rodger Summers, vice president for s
tudent affairs, who was one of four administrators at
the meeting.
A student had a different opinion. The main reason the
six students walked out is that they feel the administration
is not responding to their demands, said Jason Kim, president
of the Korean-American Student Association.
"These meetings haven't been productive," Kim said, charging
administrators are trying to wait the situation out until the
semester ends next month.
Wednesday's meeting was to have been the second meeting
to discuss a list of demands made by Asian Student Union
members during a March 14 rally on the campus. Students
at the rally charged that university President Lois B. DeFleur
and other administrators were tardy in responding to an assault
on a group of Korean-American students Feb. 27 in which three
wrestlers were charged.
Administrators came to Wednesday's meeting with a list of
responses to the students' original demands, said David L.
Anderson, associate vice president and dean of student affairs.
But the meeting ended before these responses could be
discussed, he said.
"A process was in place to move along, and they (the students)
pulled the plug," he said.
Anderson said the students' list of demands has substantially
changed at each meeting. The demand that the meetings be
open to the public was in direct conflict with the March 14
agreement, the university's fact sheet said.
Kim said the process has broken down and no further
meetings are scheduled. Students will meet to plan what
to do next, he said.
The university wants to continue meetings as originally
negotiated, the fact sheet said.
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Binghamton Press & Sun - Bulletin, April 12, 2000
What is a hate crime? BU forum to join the debate
By GEORGE BASLER
Staff Writer
May Nazareno puts it very personally when she talks about the
need for Binghamton University to more strongly define "hate
crimes" and a policy for dealing with these incidents.
"If I was ever attacked on this campus, I would like to know
what the university would do if it was racially motivated," said
Nazareno, an Asian-American Binghamton University senior and
vice president for multicultural affairs with the Student
Association.
The Asian Student Union's demand that the university's student
handbook specifically define bias-related crimes and outline a
course of action to deal with them has emerged in the wake of an
assault on a group of Korean-American students in which three
white wrestlers are accused.
Students have pressed this demand in meetings with university
administrators. The issue will be the topic of a program at 4
p.m. Thursday in the University Union. Organized by Gregory
Sutton, a resident assistant, the program will focus on how the
university can, and should, respond to incidents of alleged hate
crimes and what the legal status of hate crimes is in New York
and the United States.
Thursday's forum is designed to be educational, not
confrontational, said Sutton, a sophomore. It will pose the
question: Should there be a separate status for hate crimes?
"I can't gauge student opinion on this," Sutton said. "I'm not
sure how I think about it."
The discussion at Binghamton University is hardly taking place
in a vacuum. Exactly the opposite: It fits in with a national
debate on hate crimes, motivated in part by recent ghastly
incidents, including the killing of Matthew Shepard, a gay
college student, in Wyoming and the murder of James Byrd Jr., a
black man who was dragged to death in a Texas town.
Proponents argue hate crimes should be in a separate category
because the motivation of religious, racial or other bias makes
a crime more serious. Specifically, bias-related crimes are
intended to intimidate an entire group of people, not just the
victim, said Frederick M. Lawrence, a professor of law at Boston
University.
"Hate-crime laws recognize this kind of crime does a deeper harm
to society at large," Lawrence said.
But critics maintain singling out hate crimes sets up a special
class of victims and downplays the suffering of others. For
example, they argue, the victim of a mugging suffers the same
trauma whether the motivation is money or racism.
At least some of the motivation for hate-crime legislation is
political interest groups pushing their agendas, said Todd
Gaziano, a senior fellow in legal studies with the Heritage
Foundation, a conservative think tank in Washington, D.C. "I,
for one, don't accept the argument that, in most cases, crime
motivated by one reason is more horrible than other crimes," he
said.
The term "hate crime" and the push for separate hate-crime laws
came into vogue in the 1980s because of publicity over attacks
by so-called "skinheads" against blacks and homosexuals, said
Kelly Damphousse, assistant professor of sociology at the
University of Oklahoma.
Forty-one states and the federal government have enacted hate-
crime laws, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center in
Montgomery, Ala. And in 1990, Congress passed the Hate Crime
Statistics Act that requires the FBI to track hate crimes.
The laws generally boost penalties for offenses labeled as hate
crimes and give victims another legal tool to go after
perpetrators. Groups protected by hate-crime laws, however,
differ from state to state. Sexual orientation is protected in
only 21 states.
New York is one of the states without a hate-crime law. A
proposed law has been bogged down in state legislative
committees for more than a decade because the Republican-
controlled Senate has balked at the inclusion of anti-gay crime.
Binghamton University administrators just received the students'
demand for a hate-crime policy last week and have not had time
to study it, said Katharine F. Ellis, director of media
relations. She had no further comment. The Asian Student Union
representatives and administrators are due to meet again today.
The Asian Student Union's wish for a policy that more
specifically defines hate crimes and procedures for handling
such incidents was one of several demands by leaders who charged
BU's administration was slow to respond to the assault on the
Korean-American students.
The student handbook contains sections on sexual harassment,
rape and drug and alcohol abuse, and it should have a section on
bias-based violence, Nazareno said.
She said BU promotes itself as a diverse campus, so it
should "reassure students if you're attacked because of gender,
race, religious affiliation or sexual orientation that the
university will take assaults like these seriously."
But Gaziano, of the Heritage Foundation, questioned the need for
a specific policy on hate crimes. "I assume beatings are not
allowed on your campus," he said, and students who assault other
students already face criminal sanctions. The wrestlers accused
of assaulting the Korean-American students face felony charges.
Enforcing existing laws will deter thugs, not inserting "a sort
of feel-good policy" in a student handbook, Gaziano said.
Of more concern is the tendency at some universities to use
codes of conduct to try to punish speech that offends members of
a certain group, he said. That raises real free speech issues,
he added.
Nazareno said hate crimes are different because the motivation
is different. The fact that a person is targeted because of
race, religion or sexual orientated makes the difference, she
said.
At the national level, Damphousse, of the University of
Oklahoma, thinks the push for defining hate crimes as a separate
category is far from over.
"As long as you have strong interest groups that have agendas
and can point to atrocities, this is going to be an issue," he
said.
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Binghamton Press & Sun - Bulletin, April 02, 2000
Wrestler's friend doubts charges:
Former BU athlete called 'true gentleman'
by Margaret Costello
Gannett News Service
WAVERLY- A year ago, Nicholas W. Richetti was a state champion wrestler. Two months
ago, he was poised to compete in the NCAA tournament. Today, he's sitting home facing
felony assault charges.
Richetti, 19, is one of the three Binghamton University students implicated in a Feb. 27 fight on
campus with four Asian-American students, one of whom suffered a fractured skull. Richetti
also faces an additioinal assault charge in connection with an unrelated off-campus incident that
occurred just hours before the campus fight.
But Richetti's lawyer, Robert Miller of Waverly, says the incident was nothing more than a
scuffle among drunken college students. And a friend refuses to believe Richetti could be guilty.
"I've never known Nick to be anything but a true gentleman," said Ed Reese of Wellsburg.
Reese is the father of Jeff Reese, a University of Michigan wrester who died in December 1997
while trying to drop weight before a wrestling match.
On March 6, police charged Richetti and fellow wrestlers Christopher M. Taylor, 20, and Chad
Scott, 18, with second-degree gang assault, a felony. All three pleaded innocent that same day.
Senior Assistant District Attorney Joseph F. Romani said prosecutors are trying to work out a
plea agreement.
John Lee was hospitalized with a fractured skull. He has since been released and has returned
to school.
Richetti, the 1999 New York state high school wrestling champion at 119 pounds, was having a
strong rookie wrestling season--14-3 in the 138-pound weight class--and had hoped to compete
at the NCAA tournament, Miller said. Miller said Richetti does not plan to return to Binghamton
University, where he has lost his wrestling scholarship.
Reese said Richetti had a reputation as a good student and a dedicated athlete. Richetti was the
1999 recipient of the Jeff Reese Memorial Scholarship, which gives $500 per year for four years
to a graduating high school senior from Section 4 who plans to wrestle in college. Richetti
compiled a record of 162-27 as a high school wrestler.
"Until he gets convicted of it, I won't believe it," said Reese, who has known Richetti for more
than six years. "This is so much out of character for Nick. He wouldn't say 'boo.' It's not in
his makeup to be the aggressor."
The FBI is investigating whether the campus incident was a hate crime. The fallout has
included a March 15 rally by 300 university students, an event spearheaded by the Asian
Student Union. The students demanded that the university officials do more to punish the
students who were charged and formulate detailed plans to prevent similar incidents.
Six student leaders will meet with university President Lois B. DeFleur and other administrators
at 6:30p.m. Monday to discuss how the university can prevent such incidents in the future, said
university spokeswoman Katharine Ellis.
The Asian Student Union asked the university to hire two Asian-American counselors who
would better understand the Asian-American students' cultural background, Ellis said. The
university has agreed to hire one such counselor, according to a March 24 letter from DeFleur.
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Binghamton Press & Sun - Bulletin, April 02, 2000
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