A law professor at the University of Oregon is under investigation after showing up to an off-campus Halloween party in blackface.
To his credit, Schill has done an admirable job of trying to remedy the issues on campus. In September, along with the Board of Trustees, he decided to scrub the name of former professor Frederic Dunn from a dorm on campus due to his past as an “exalted cyclops” in the Ku Klux Klan.
Michael Moffitt, the dean of the law school, said in a letter “This action demonstrated racial insensitivity in a way that is inconsistent with our school’s values, and wholly unacceptable for this institution. We will follow the university’s processes for determining whether the act violated university rules.”
According to Schill’s letter, the faculty member apologized for her actions and has “expressed concern about its potential impact on members of the community.” Respectfully, if you are actually concerned about your idiot decision to show up to a Halloween party in blackface in 2016, something tells me that you wouldn’t have done it in the first place.
Schill also notes that the incident indicates a very clear need for “more training and dialogue on these critical issues.” Given Oregon’s history, this is abundantly clear.
The professor in question has been placed on administrative leave and the incident is being investigated by the Office of Affirmative Action and Equal Opportunity.
Editor’s note: The post has been updated to correct the gender of the faculty member in question.
