By Leily Rezvani on November 9, 2019

A white female, between 30 and 40 years of age, committed a hate crime and battery against a female of Asian descent between 12:30 and 12:40 p.m. on Thursday, according to a witness who reported the incident to Stanford University Department of Public Safety (SUDPS).

Two females of Asian descent were riding their bicycles on Jane Stanford Way. Near the intersection with Arguello Way, the suspect pushed one of the females off of her bicycle and “in a loud, angry manner, referred to victim using a term that was later determined to be an ethnic slur,” according to an AlertSU message sent to students on Saturday. The notification indicated that the incident was reported to the department by a witness on Friday.

The suspect, whose identity is unknown, then walked away, according to the alert. She was described as being of average build, having short light-brown hair and wearing a black raincoat.

The victim refused medical attention and declined to provide a statement to the police department regarding the incident, according to the report. SUDPS does not know whether she is a student.

This report follows a string of other incidents involving racial slurs against other minorities and a noose that found near a campus residence over the summer. Between the months of May and August, multiple incidents of racial slurs being used to address Asian and Asian-American students took place.

In an email on Oct. 13, Vice Provost for Student Affairs Susie Brubaker-Cole denounced two incidents that happened during the first weekend of fall quarter. One individual shouted a “racist remark” at a black student. The same evening, an individual called a Middle Eastern student a terrorist and told him to “go home.”

“Stanford affirms the dignity of all individuals and calls upon all of us to strive for a just community in which discrimination and hate have no presence,” she wrote.

She added that some campus visitors had shouted “racist remarks” at Asian and Asian American students in several incidents and that SUDPS had issued stay-away letters to some of the suspects.

Last week, in another letter to the community, Brubaker-Cole announced the University’s plans to roll out “Education Against Racial Hatred,” an initiative “to give voice to the diversity on our campus” and educate students through activities including two art exhibitions and a hack-a-thon.

A goal of the exhibition, Brubaker-Cole wrote, is to “provide more opportunities for community education about racism in our country and on our campus, recognizing that education is only one of multiple systemic changes necessary and underway.”

This article has been corrected to remove a reference to the victim as a student; it is unknown whether she is a student.

Contact Leily Rezvani at lrezvani ‘at’ stanford.edu.