Closed
After a period of 90 days with no new information, cases are considered closed. However, if new information becomes available or there are other updates those will be posted here. Individuals who believe they have been the target of bias, intolerance or discrimination may report an incident to the public incident report form (bias and intolerance) or the Office of Equal Opportunity and Affirmative Action (sexual misconduct and discrimination).
Please direct any questions or concerns in regard to this bias incident to the RBIRT Manager at RBIresponse@utah.edu.
What happened
On November 7, 2020, during a masterclass on African American art song, conducted over Zoom, an unknown group of individuals “zoom bombed” the meeting, using offensive language in their Zoom audio feeds, and using racist hate speech in the text chat. The racist hate speech was directed at the Black community. The meeting organizers muted and removed the disruptive participants, ended the meeting, and reconvened in a more secure fashion.
Similar incidents have occurred at colleges and universities throughout the country, as well as the U, since late March 2020, when many institutions began using Zoom for online meetings and classes as part of their COVID-19 response plans.
What is being done
The incident was reported to the University’s Racist and Bias Incident Response Team, and to the Information Security Office. University Police and the FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) were notified.
Perpetrators of incidents like this are difficult to identify, however, if any university community members are identified, the Office of the Dean of Students, Human Resources, or other appropriate administrator will contact them to discuss policies and relevant sanctions, and provide education about the impact of these messages.
What to do
The University of Utah Information Privacy Office and IT department have previously released information regarding additional steps that can be taken to secure virtual meetings conducted via Zoom, and it may be helpful to review them prior to scheduling your next Zoom event. Those previous communications can be found here: Security Best Practices When Using Zoom and Avoid Being Bombed, Keep Your Zoom Meetings Safe. Zoom has also published a blog post How to Keep Uninvited Guests Out of Your Zoom Event. Additionally, a story on helpful tips to secure Zoom meetings was distributed in the November 2, 2020 edition of @TheU. If you need assistance setting up and securing a public event through the Zoom platform, you can contact Teaching and Learning Technologies (TLT) at 801-581-6112, classhelp@utah.edu, or https://tlt.utah.edu/.
The U is committed to equity, diversity and inclusion
The University of Utah, School of Music, and the College of Fine Arts strongly condemn bias, discrimination, racism, bigotry and hate in the strongest possible terms and is no place for violence. We support fostering an inclusive campus and are committed to diversity. U administrators want to assure students, faculty and staff that they are dedicated to creating a safe, welcoming and equitable campus where we work together to engage, support and advance a living, learning and working environment that fosters values of respect, diversity, inclusivity and academic excellence.
President Ruth V. Watkins said in a message condemning racism that “The rhetoric used by these groups does not align with or reflect the University of Utah’s values. These cowardly, faceless and non-university sanctioned tactics are designed to disrupt and frighten individuals and communities, and to garner attention for an insidious ideology that has no place on our campus or in our community.”
Students, faculty, staff and visitors who believe they have been the target of bias, intolerance or discrimination may report an incident to the Office for Inclusive Excellence (bias and intolerance) or the Office of Equal Opportunity and Affirmative Action (sexual misconduct and discrimination).