Tackling racism is one concern for several universities and colleges even though discrimination has not dramatically increased on their campuses.

“Yes, there is more concern about racial incidents occuring on campus. Other schools have not seen discrimination dramatically increase, but they are still concerned about it,” Jon Dalton, vice president for student affairs, said.

Dalton said racism became an issue last spring for NIU and many other universities; however, he said accurate statistics showing an increase in racism do not exist.

Linda Tillis, student housing services assistant director, said, “I do not feel we (NIU) have more of a problem, but there is no way to tell for sure.”

Racism always has existed on campus, but students are becoming more vocal about their concerns, Tillis said.

“After the 60s and early 70s, people felt it was unacceptable to make racist comments or slurs,” she said. People did not discuss racism for years, and Tillis said she fears the message people received was that discrimination was not a concern.

Tillis said NIU has done a lot, compared to other universities, to create student awareness, and NIU is willing to put time and money into solving the problem.

Black Greek Council Treasurer Jesse Taylor said the organization is planning an event to create student awareness, but details for the event have not been completed.

Taylor said the segment of the Feb. 4 conference, “Racial Discrimination on Campus,” he attended taught him how to work with the administration “to cut off hostile action before it gets too big.”

Results of a Fall 1987 Campus Survey on Racial Discrimination show 26 percent of the schools surveyed noticed an increase in discrimination while 74 percent reported an increase has not been identified within the last two years.

The colleges and universities involved in the survey are involved with the Midwest region of the National Association of Student Personnel Administrators.

“The respondents who said they saw no increase described incidents of verbal and written harassment, conflicts or disagreements between individuals, and made references to undercurrents, uneasiness and negative attitudes,” the survey concluded.

Verbal and written harassments and individual conflicts dominated on campuses with a noticeable increase as well, the survey stated.

Because discrimination is becoming more of an issue, NIU has to react to incidents, Tillis said. From the administrative point of view, racism requires “more public things to respond to, but in my heart, people’s feelings are the same and have not been expressed,” she said.

An important aspect to solving the problem is involving faculty members because “they are the driving force of the university,” Tillis said.

In the past, the faculty has not been involved with solving racism and the administration has to join together with them, she said.

Dalton said, “How faculty relate to students is important. Students’ relationships with faculty is important with retaining students (as well).”

Student Association Vice President Cam Davis said, “People need to be more sensitive to the needs of minorities.” For example, some people are realizing racial jokes are harmful rather than humorous, he said.