Loyal Terry and Bethany Willig never thought their senior year of college would start this way.
Instead of enjoying their last days at Grinnell College with friends and mapping out their futures, the two are among many Black students living in fear and demanding school administrators and city leaders take quicker action to protect them and their peers after a surge of racist incidents on campus last month.
“I wanted to do all of the stuff you see in the movies instead of fighting racism…,” said Terry, co-spokesperson for the Black Student Union and president of the Student Government Association. “You’re not able to do that.”
On Oct. 9, a week before staff and students went on fall break, at least 14 cars parked on a campus lot on 10th Street and signs nearby were covered with racist and white supremacist graffiti. Terry and Willig, who is also a spokesperson for the Black Student Union, said they and other Black students have also been the targets of racial harassment since the semester began, including white drivers yelling racial slurs at them on and off campus.
College administrators have publicly condemned the racist incidents and have provided biweekly updates on a safety plan with input from the Black Student Union, Student Government Association, faculty and staff. But Terry, Willig and BSU member Evelyn Coffie said they worry the changes aren’t coming fast enough. And, they said, the small flashlights and whistles provided by the college as part of a self-defense kit aren’t enough to quell their concerns.
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“It doesn’t remove the anxiety and fear that I have right now in the present,” Terry, 21, said. “I can still get harassed and (be a victim of) hate crimes walking down the street. We still walk in pairs when we’re walking somewhere late at night. Like that whistle isn’t going to stop somebody from hopping out of their car and doing something to one of us.”
“I’ve been harassed by multiple white women yelling at me from their cars,” he continued. “We have students (taunted with) monkey noises on campus. We had a student get called a ‘monkey’ just off over by the gas station. And one of our good friends got told: ‘Don’t think I won’t smoke you, you stupid f—— n-word’ as they spun the block on him twice to say that — all right in front of and on campus.”
Grinnell College president pledges to hold people accountable
Grinnell College President Anne Harris told the Des Moines Register there were no security cameras near the lot where cars were vandalized — one of the 10 top issues BSU has asked administrators to resolve. The college has ordered its first round of cameras, which will be installed along 10th Street, where there was vandalism, and Eighth Street, where students have faced the most run-ins with drivers, Harris said.
Harris and Grinnell Mayor Dan F. Agnew have solicited help from residents to report any harassment or vandalism to police, tell police if they know of any individuals who have been involved, and enroll in bystander intervention training to help prevent future incidents.
Recently, the city, Grinnell Police Department and the Poweshiek County Sheriff’s Office announced a $2,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of whoever is responsible for racial harassment and vandalism at Grinnell College. Information can be reported by calling 641-623-5602.
“We’re going to hold someone accountable to the full extent that we can,” Harris said.
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While Willig acknowledged the efforts, especially from college officials, they were critical. They said the partnerships that formed were the result of Black students’ outcries, and that it took “Black students banging our heads against the door for things to move.”
Willig also believed the college’s response is reactionary and has yet to answer the question: “How do we change the culture?”
“This isn’t an institution that isn’t well-educated,” Terry added. “This isn’t a community that hasn’t been adjacent to a college or hasn’t met Black people before. This isn’t something where any of these conversations are new.”
Grinnell’s idyllic ‘bubble’ has burst
Rhonda Stuart, a 1986 Grinnell College graduate, remembered run-ins with individuals who shouted the n-word at her and her peers while driving through campus. It’s a story many Black alumni share. Even her son, who graduated 33 years later, had a similar experience.
Stuart said she and her son didn’t think much about those interactions, but last month’s incidents have raised more concerns.
“It just seems like now there’s more potential for actual violence,” she said.
Black students said they don’t trust campus security and local law enforcement, but that isn’t new. Stuart, who serves on the alumni council and has returned to campus on occasion, said the college should work to foster better relationships among students, campus security and Grinnell police officers.
“Most students don’t really know who campus security is unless they have a negative experience with them,” Stuart said.
Terry said people often view Grinnell College as a “bubble.” The college in rural Grinnell is routinely ranked as one of the nation’s best liberal arts colleges and has a diverse student body. About a quarter of its students are people of color and 18% are international students from more than 40 countries, according to the school website.
“But the bubble’s burst,” Terry said.
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Apart from the recent racial incidents, Terry and Coffie said the murder of Michael Williams still weighs on them. Coffie, now a college junior, said she was a freshman when Williams, a Black man, was killed, his body burned and left in a ditch in rural Jasper County.
The four Grinnell residents charged with his death — Steven Vogel, Julia Cox, Roy Garner and Cody Johnson — are all white. Vogel, 32, was found guilty last November of first-degree murder and abuse of a corpse, while the others were charged with abuse of a corpse, destruction of evidence and accessory after the fact.
The cause of death was ruled homicide by strangulation, and authorities and the Iowa-Nebraska chapter of the NAACP previously said Williams was not targeted and killed because of his race. But Terry said he, like Williams’ family, perceive his death aligned with historic lynchings in the United States in which Black men were killed after claims of sexual contact with white women.
Prosecutors said they believed Vogel killed Williams out of jealousy and anger, referencing a love triangle involving Vogel’s girlfriend.
“That definitely made me fearful,” Coffie, 20, said.
‘I just want to be a student’
The Black Student Union also has pushed the college to fund self-defense classes and host a “Know Your Rights” campaign to teach staff and students ways to protect themselves, Willig, 20, said. The organization also asked the college to hire more Black social workers and therapists, offer paid time off to Black student workers who experience racist incidents and hold emergency town hall meetings with the city of Grinnell.
Terry and Coffie said the college should offer Black students time to recover — at least two business days — if they experience racist incidents. Coffie said she and her peers feel like they haven’t had the chance to stop since the Oct. 9 incident, and they’ve continued to lean on each other, cobbling ideas to ensure their safety on campus while studying and working.
Before the fall break, BSU launched a GoFundMe drive to provide food and offset transportation costs for students suffering from trauma because of the recent incidents. As of Nov. 8, the student-led organization had reached more than half of its $25,000 goal.
“It just felt like we never had a pause,” Coffie said. “We have to make sure that people are still aware that this is not a temporary issue, like this is a perpetual cycle. We’re still here. We’re still Black students. We’re still speaking for the Black students, faculty and staff who were here before us that we’re dealing with this.
“It’s definitely heavy to still be back here, knowing that change is coming as slow as it is — and not (being) sure if the goal was ever going to be met. Like, that’s a big fear.”
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Harris admitted the college “has a lot of work to do” to make sure students feel “cared for” and comfortable reporting incidents. Grinnell police said in a news release that they are investigating two reported incidents of racial harassment but are not releasing details from those cases and the names of the parties involved.
With each day passing, Willig said their emotions continue to flip-flop between optimism and skepticism. But mostly, they said they feel tired.
“I just want to be a student,” Willig said. “I’m here for an education.”
Terry said he’s exhausted but remains focused on uplifting Black peers.
“We pay to go here,” he said. “We have buy-in to the institution. We are stakeholders of this place … We are also a service to the institution. We are not disposable.”
F. Amanda Tugade covers social justice issues for the Des Moines Register. Email her at ftugade@dmreg.com or follow her on Twitter @writefelissa.