On April 17, Eastern Washington University President Shari McMahan and the university leadership team met to discuss racist graffiti found days earlier in the Black Student Union’s Dance studio.

Five days after the graffiti was found, the leadership team was concerned with a Spokesman-Review article in which Sierra Alexander, the Black Student Union club president at the time, criticized McMahan’s response to the incident, according to notes of the meeting obtained by the Easterner through a public records request. 

McMahan’s response at the time included a statement via email to all students and employees of EWU that said discriminatory behavior would not be tolerated at Eastern and that “incidents meant to denigrate students, faculty or staff go against [EWU’s] very mission of providing opportunities for personal transformation.” 

“In those couple of days leading up to the Spokesman article it was radio silence from the university,” Alexander said. “We were waiting for them to do what they said they were going to do, waiting for them to care, waiting for them to do anything aside from a literally OK statement.”

Notes from the leadership meeting speculate whether Vanessa Delgado, former director of the Multicultural Center, and her supervisor Nick Franco had something to do with Alexander publicly criticizing the university. 

The leadership team, which at the time included VP of Diversity and Senior Diversity officer Shari Clarke, VP of Student Affairs Robert Sauders, and chief of staff Mark Baldwin among others, noted that Alexander’s criticism of McMahan’s statement was “not in line” with what they thought she had “agreed upon” when she saw it prior to it being sent out, records show. 

“[Multicultural Center] staff are the administrators and should be defending the university,” the notes say, adding that both Delgado and Franco would be talked to about their interaction with Alexander, including about whether or not they “changed her mind.” 

Delgado was fired less than 3 months later, with her response to this incident being part of the reasoning according to her termination letter. The University has declined to comment on the precise reasoning for Delgado’s termination, and they would not discuss the actions she took at the time of the incident. Delgado herself declined to comment for this article due to a severance agreement she had signed with the university.

Range Media detailed the circumstances of Delgado’s termination in a two part series, which can be found here and here.

“It just seemed like [the university] was not happy that instead of silencing us, [Delgado] gave us a voice and gave us a platform. She did not direct us in any way on how to act– if anything, she discouraged us from going to the media,” Alexander said. “But we did anyway, because we are grown adults who can make our own decisions.”

The leadership team also appeared to be frustrated by McMahan not being notified of the graffiti earlier, the notes indicate. The records suggest that there was a gap between the point that Delgado and Franco found out about the graffiti, and the point that the rest of the leadership team did. 

Alexander’s version of events differs from what is recorded in the leadership team’s notes. While she did alert Delgado and Franco the day after the BSU discovered the graffiti, Alexander argues that the blame for lack of communication should not have fallen onto Delgado.

“Vanessa was not the first, second, or third person that I told [about the graffiti],” Alexander said. “I alerted three [other] university employees [the day of the incident] – full time staff members– and one of them was in the [Office for Diversity, Equity & Inclusion], so those reports should have been in already.”

The BSU graffiti incident was only one of a number of hate related incidents that have occurred  on EWU campus this year. Notably, there have been homophobic/transphobic slurs found on the gender neutral floor in George Pearce hall, controversial preacher visits, and violence from petitioners.

The slurs and preacher visits were also cited in Delgado’s termination letter as instances in which she “failed to properly represent the university or to adequately perform [her] duties as part of the university administration.” In another part of the letter, it was stated that her responses in these incidents were representative of a larger pattern of behavior.

The letter, written by EWU’s previous vice president of Student Affairs Robert Sauders, alleges that Delgado promoted a narrative that the university either does not support or care about the students that utilize the Multicultural Center and Pride Center. 

“The effects of your messaging are evidenced by the fact that students report feeling supported by the Multicultural and Pride Centers, but report feeling unsupported by the university. This is a contradiction– the Multicultural Center and the Pride Center are the university, and the support provided by the Centers is a reflection of the university’s support for its students.” Sauders wrote in the letter.

Alexander challenges this perspective directly.

“If it weren’t for those Centers, we would not be on campus. We would not be part of the community. And for them to twist and warp it into ‘oh, they’re not integrated, they only want to be [in the centers]’ or whatever is so stupid because we’re literally on campus, at the center of campus, in those two centers in the PUB,” Alexander said.

Alexander said that she believes that Delgado was used as a scapegoat for the negative publicity directed at McMahan brought on by media coverage of the hate incidents.

“BSU has been saying that the president is the one who has been messing up,” Alexander said. “She doesn’t come to any Pride events, she is really lacking in her social justice awareness, and students have told her time and time again how they feel about that. And it’s just really interesting that after speaking with us and being so quote unquote genuine about our experiences, the one person we tell her directly is the person who helps us most is the person who’s fired.”

Franco, Delgado’s supervisor, resigned from their position following an $85,400 settlement agreement with the university which involved Franco withdrawing a complaint that “university personnel unlawfully discriminated and/or retaliated against them” two months after Delgado’s termination, records show. It’s unclear from the public records if the complaint was related to the university terminating Delgado.

Despite Alexander’s allegations against the president and university, EWU director of media relations David Meany said via email correspondence that after the BSU and homophobic slur incidents there have been a number of changes made to campus in response to student requests for more support and transparency. These changes include cameras in the BSU dance studio, online bias/discrimination report forms, advance notification of unaffiliated parties coming to campus when possible, and review of current campus policies related to free speech on campus.

Free speech has been referenced in a number of emails sent out to students, primarily in relation to 3rd party preachers and petitioners. On October 19th, a petitioner in front of the PUB building directed racial slurs at students and threatened bodily harm to them. While university police were soon able to apprehend the suspect, the affected students have been unable to connect with university administration. Meany clarifies that this does not mean the university won’t look into ways to ensure students feel safer when visitors come to campus.

Alexander remains frustrated with the university, even after having engaged in multiple administrative meetings to bring forth change.

“Things like what happened to the BSU happen constantly on campus, not just to black students but marginalized students, and Vanessa Delgado has been the backbone of our support system in a university that seems to punish staff members who don’t go along with the status quo,” Alexander said. “We understand why, after a situation like this, staff and faculty members might not stand up for us. But we will continue to stand up for ourselves.”