An email was sent out to the Sonoma State community on Feb. 22 providing more information on the Zoom bombing hate crime that took place on Feb. 16 during a Black History Month virtual event hosted by the University. The email let students and faculty know that law enforcement agencies were actively investigating the crime and the info was also forwarded to the FBI. 

The email, sent from Dr. Wm. Gregory Sawyer, vice president for Student Affairs, Nadar Oweis, chief of police at SSU Police Department, and David Chun, chief information officer read, “On February 16, 2021, during the Black Student-Athlete Experience lecture, one of several events held during Black History Month, an unknown individual in black face appeared during the Zoom program and spewed a racial epithet. The guest speaker’s presentation was disrupted when the Zoom screen was defaced with the ‘n-word,’ and additional messages were being sent through the chat with racial slurs and anti-Semitic comments.”

In the first response sent out on the day of the incident, the University made the initial decision not to disclose the details of the crime as to avoid giving those responsible the attention and platform they were likely looking for.

When asked about the decision, Assistant Vice President for Strategic Communications, Julia Gonzalez, wrote in an email, “The University responded quickly to inform the campus community of the incident. Initially we chose to not share details specifically describing what occurred in order to not give those persons responsible the platform they sought, and we didn’t want those who experienced the incident to have to relive it. In fact, some promising practices advise against ‘naming’ the incidents in detail and others believe that universities must be specific unless it risks looking as though they are trying to ‘hide’ something.” 

A student editorial from the HUB, the University’s cultural center, was shared on Feb. 22 with students and faculty. The editorial, Black Students at Sonoma State Deserve Better, written by Loren Smith, HUB intern, and Jor Grapentine, Gender & Sexuality Program coordinator, expressed the concerns and issues many students had in response to the event and how it was handled.

Smith, a fourth-year majoring in Women and Gender Studies, HUB intern, and vice president of SSU’s Black Student Union wrote in response to the initial omission of details saying, “This expectation for the Black population at SSU to simply move past a direct infringement of their well-being, without properly educating the rest of Sonoma State on the incident puts more work on our Black peers.”

In a follow up interview, Smith voiced that while she understood the perspective of not wanting to give those responsible a platform, but by avoiding specifics this put the responsibility of sharing the details back onto the black community that was in attendance. 

Smith said that when going to classes the next day, most educators and students had little to no information on what had actually taken place but were curious because they knew there had been a hate crime. Because of this, Smith felt the responsibility to inform her professor and classmates on what had happened.

“After reflecting even upon that, it was difficult because I’d imagine that for other black students who were there who don’t feel as outspoken as I am, how do they cope with even acknowledging the fact that this happened and addressing it to professors and having to be the one to address it, and that’s where I really feel the fault was,” Smith said. 

The University heard these concerns and decided to send a follow up email with more specific information. 

“In a subsequent communication where we updated the campus community on the status of the investigation, we provided specific detail of the incident so that the campus could know what specifically was being investigated. We also heard from a few students that they prefer the University specifically describe the incidents that occurred, so we also wanted to honor that,” wrote Gonzalez.

Unfortunately, this was likely not an isolated incident. With most jobs, organizations, and schools going virtual for the last year, racist-based zoom hackings and virtual hate crimes such as this have been seen across the country. The University is in contact with law enforcement in other jurisdictions, who are investigating similar incidents that have happened in the last couple weeks, along with the FBI.

The University and University police are also working with the Information Technology Department and the Center for Teaching and Educational Technology to create Zoom security training workshops and practices to reduce the risk of virtual intrusions.

“The Center for Teaching and Educational Technology is preparing a series of workshops targeting event users (faculty already have similar workshops all year) to familiarize the campus community with the various security features of Zooms. We are also planning to move larger open public events to webinar format. In the upcoming months, an online web conference subcommittee of university community members will be formed to develop long term sustainable strategies for virtual events,” wrote Gonzalez.  

A message to the University from the Black Student Union, posted to their Instagram page on Feb. 18, in response to the hate crime read, “For those looking to help the SSU BSU community, and black student and faculty populations during this time, we simply ask for your presence and support throughout the rest of black history month, as well as moving forward as we transition back onto campus.”