The Master of St Catherine’s College, Cambridge has issued a public statement apologising to a black student who was “physically prevented” by a porter from entering the grounds for a meeting with a professor.
Collin Edouard, a master’s student at Wolfson College, reported that he was “grabbed” by a porter who refused him entry even after he had informed him that he was a student and given him the professor’s name and room number. It was only after his white friend, coincidentally present at the same time, confirmed he was a student that he was allowed to enter.
Edouard took to Facebook later that day to express his anger and distress at the issue, saying: “It took someone I knew that happened to be there at an unusual time, to tell them I am in fact a student. His tone changed once the person I know told them I’m a student then they tried to tell me it’s cause they have had problems with protesters in the past. I angrily told them that regardless of what your issues have been in the past you CANNOT put your hands on anyone.”
Since then, Eduoard has created the hashtag #speakout on social media to support students of colour. He reports receiving numerous messages from strangers after posting the hashtag, recounting their experiences of racism at the University.
He told Cherwell: “My situation is hardly unique at Oxbridge so I want people to begin to have these important conversations. Our feelings are valid and we will no longer tolerate any form of mistreatment. We will use our voices and #speakout.”
The statement from the Master, Professor Sir Mark Welland, was posted on the college website 4 days after the incident occured. Welland said: “..the College wishes to make a sincere and public apology to Mr Collin Edouard, a student at Wolfson College.”
“This was entirely unacceptable in the context of a student attending a supervision. Our processes did not ensure that Mr Edouard was treated with the highest level of respect and courtesy that we aspire to. We are aware that, despite our best intentions, he felt singled out based on race and we are truly sorry for the distress this has caused him. We are investigating the matter in line with the appropriate processes and will remain in contact with the student in question to review how we all ensure that visitors are welcomed consistently going forwards.
“As a College we are committed to recognising and preventing discriminatory behaviour, conscious or unconscious. I, along with the Senior Tutor and other colleagues at St Catharine’s, will also be openly sharing any learnings with the rest of the collegiate university.”
St Catherine’s communications office told Cherwell they had “Nothing further to add to the statement from Friday.”
Edouard told Cherwell: “I think the masters apology was a good start in a more productive direction and I’m looking forward to seeing the steps they plan to take in order to minimize these kinds of situations”.
The incident follows the controversial events at the Oxford Union in November of last year when Ghanaian postgraduate student Ebenezer Azmati was removed from a debate.
An investigation by The Independent reported that the number of racist incidents in universities across the UK rose by over 60 per cent between 2015 and 2017.
