What happened

Several University of Utah students who are members of a Snapchat community for the U of U class of 2026 reported through the Office of the Dean of Students public reporting form, that a student member of that group posted two separate images they felt were biased in nature, one a racist image to the group. Specifically, a student posted an image that had the “Black Lives Matter” logo blurred, with the words “False Information Reviewed by Independent fact-checkers” written across the logo. The second was a anti-trans meme image which depicted a child with the words “too young to choose bed time old enough to choose gender.”

The U of U class of 2026 Snapchat community is not affiliated with or controlled by the University of Utah. Snapchat provides a feature called “college community” that allows students to connect with their university and join communities by using a valid university-issued email address. It is unknown how many students are a member of this particular community. 

What is being done

The Office of the Dean of Students reported the incident to the Racist and Bias Incident Response Team and to the Office of Equal Opportunity and Affirmative Action. Although the University recognizes the First Amendment protection for this speech, it may nevertheless be helpful for the posting student to understand the impact their speech may have on others. To this end, the Associate Vice President, Student Development and Inclusion has reached out to the identified student in a way designed to provide education about the harm caused to the community by this type of behavior – even in the absence of a finding of policy violation.

What to do

Be vigilant and speak up. Educating others about the impact their speech can have takes collective action, and bystander intervention efforts are one way of addressing conduct that causes real harm. To learn more about how to incorporate bystander intervention into your toolkit, check out the information here: https://wellness.utah.edu/workshops-training/#bystander.

If you hear about or observe similar events or experience a racist or bias incident, make a report to the Racist and Bias Incident Response Team, or if you experience discrimination you can report it to the Office of Equal Opportunity and Affirmative Action.

If you are interested in learning more about the variety of resources the U offers to support diversity and inclusion, please visit the Office of the Dean of Students in the Union Building, Room 270, deanofstudents@utah.edu, 801-581-7066, or Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion in the Park Building, Room 208, or https://diversity.utah.edu/our-team/. 

The U is committed to equity, diversity and inclusion

Regardless of the intention, acts like this cause harm to students and other community members’ sense of belonging. We continue to strive to ensure that all our staff, students, trainees, faculty and other community members are able to find a place of safety and belonging as a part of our campus community, and acts like this invalidate many students’ experiences. 

We will continue to name the biased acts, investigate, provide education, and when appropriate, hold the perpetrators of these harmful acts accountable when they are identified. Additionally, we will continue efforts that uplift and celebrate our communities and enhance a sense of belonging on our campus.