Wiley moderated a “town meeting” at Paul Smith’s College Monday night.

Of the 500 people who attended, 400 were students, said Mike Harrington, chief student affairs officer at Paul Smith’s College.

“What we realized was that the incident last semester opened a wound that has been rumbling under the surface. There were issues and concern around the idea of whether or not our college community is practicing good social justice. We needed to open that door. This (insensitivity) is not going to go away by itself.”

The meeting lasted nearly three hours, Harrington said.

Aaron characterized the tone of the meeting as very respectful.

“People weren’t shouting; it was very productive. We realized issues of diversity are not a one-way-street. People of all races, cultures, creeds have their own ‘isms’, if you will.”

MOVING AHEAD

Harrington said students began to recognize differences in their college community.

“One of the things that came up — and we talked about race because it was right in front of us — (is) there are other differences here in gender, in socioeconomic class, in religion.

“We talked about how the forestry students might be characterized because of the way they look, because of what they wear — and the same for culinary students.”

But finding a way to provide sound education about social justice in an insular, primarily white community emerged as a larger goal.

“From here, we will decide how to move forward,” Harrington said, “whether it’s with a diversity initiative or developing (pluralism) programs at the college level in order to educate our students. We want them to be able to graduate as civically engaged members of society with an open mind to social justice and diversity.”

COLLEGE APPLAUDED