Rini Sampath, an Indian student at the University of Southern California, is making waves. It started when she became the first female to become the student body president in nearly a decade, and the first student body president ever to win on an all-female ticket. Because both she and her vice president, Jordan Fowler, are women of color, they were surprised to win the election. Sampath was even discouraged from selecting Fowler as her running mate.
It seemed like a show of progress, until recently when an unnamed student from an unnamed fraternity on campus yelled a racial slur at Sampath, unaware of who she was. The student body president posted the following to her Facebook page.
Last night, as I was walking back from my friend’s apartment, a student screamed out at me through the window of his…
Posted by Rini Sampath on Sunday, September 20, 2015
The university is investigating the case, and has not come to a decision on the consequences, but USC Dean of Religious Life Varun Soni told The Washington Post that “USC and higher education in general tries to look at incidences like this as learning and growing opportunities, not just punitive opportunities.”.
[via Washinton Post]
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