North Carolina Congresswoman Valerie Foushee is demanding action after Taiwanese students at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill say a group of men harassed them on campus because they are Asian.
Students from UNC’s Taiwanese Student Association say a group of 16 were walking on campus the day of Aug. 29, when a group of white men approached them in a harassing way. They said the men appeared to be UNC students.
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“As they get really close, they start mimicking a monkey-like gesture - putting their hands on the ground in a way that clearly feels racist and hostile toward us,” Yu-Chao Huang, UNC doctoral student. "It made us feel really uncomfortable."
This is the second incident within the last month that students say is racially charged. UNC campus police said a man harassed several Black students during a watch party of a TV dating show on Aug. 31. That man has since been charged.
Following both those incidents, Rep. Foushee wrote a letter to Chancellor Lee Roberts, asking that UNC do what it can to “ensure that students of color feel safe on campus moving forward.”
Students say this is a chance for the university to prove it has the back of its students of color.
“We can still build an inclusive, safe environment if the university responds on time and in the correct manner to show they are willing to protect everyone on campus,” Yu-Hsiu Lien said.
We reached out to UNC-CH asking whether the men who encountered those Taiwanese students have been identified and if they will face disciplinary action if found to be UNC students.
We have not received a response to those questions, but a spokesperson gave a statement saying that the university “is committed to working with students to advance violence-prevention education and other programming.”
The university says there is surveillance video of the incident. Students from the association say they will watch the video on Tuesday with the university compliance office.
UNC shared a letter with WRAL from Chancellor Lee Roberts written to Rep. Foushee on September 21 in response to her concerns.
"Let me be clear, no member of our community should experience that at Carolina," Roberts said in the letter. "I take their concerns about safety seriously."
Roberts went on to say in the letter that he has ordered the development of an additional campuswide communication system to compliment the current Alert Carolina notification system.
"It will establish when and how the University provides those updates, even when no immediate action is required," Roberts said. "This framework will help us communicate promptly while protecting investigations, privacy and legal requirements."