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After leaving his position at Hamline, Philion went to City Pages. The weekly publication, he felt, was “just small enough and big enough” to give his story the kind of in-depth coverage he wanted.

To some, the story seemed one-sided. Many sympathized with Philion while others felt that the story left out too many other opinions.

Professor Mike Reynolds of the English department, who had been interviewed by Paul Demko, the City Pages reporter who wrote the story, said he was “angry at the article...it boiled down a complex issue to an easily digestible story.” Communication Studies Professor George Gaetano, on the other hand, felt the article helped give him a new perspective as he had previously “only spoken to one of the students,” he explained.

In the piece, Philion explained that he had expected the dissatisfied students to drop the course. Instead, after meetings with the Sociology Department Chair, Professor Melissa Embser-Herbert and Philion himself, the students finished the course under the instruction of Professor Colleen Bell, in the Conflict Studies department. Although this may seem unorthodox and irregular to some, Embser-Herbert said there is a process in place to be followed when students take issue with a course and that the process was, in this case, followed. Students who are dissatisfied with a course should first contact the instructor to voice concerns. If they feel their concerns are not met, a meeting can be arranged with the department chair, and eventually can be taken to the Dean of the CLA’s office if necessary.

In this case, said Embser-Herbert, a student came to her with concerns about Philion’s course and wanted to arrange a meeting with him, so Embser-Herbert arranged for the three of them to talk. Prior to the meeting taking place, another student approached Embser-Herbert and voiced similar concerns. After the meeting, the students returned to class but felt that things were still problematic. Embser-Herbert then observed the class and noted that “things did not go well,” leading her to begin considering other potential resolutions to the perceived problems.

This process is what eventually led to the students finishing the course under a different instructor.

Embser-Herbert said that at the point at which she observed the class, which was on Halloween, both Philion and the students had valid concerns. It was a situation “involving personality conflict as much as anything else...there was error on both sides.”

At this point, the dean’s office got involved. Associate Dean of Students Alzada Tipton said that Embser-Herbert did go to the dean’s office, which is common at this point in the process. “Most times,” Tipton said, “the department chair consults the dean’s office anyway, so it was a collaborative effort.” Seeming to come from a similar viewpoint as Embser-Herbert, she agreed that there are “times when it is not good for anyone to have the situation continue,” and that it seemed best to attempt a’ compromise.

Philion is not the only Hamline professor to experience differences of opinion about how race was discussed in a course. After teaching “Intercultural Communication” this J-term, Gaetano was surprised to find that “in student evaluations, some said I did not create a safe environment for students of color or for international students...I was not aware that some people were so unhappy with the course until after the course was over,” he said, adding that “what shocked me most was that I didn’t know what was going on in my own class.” In retrospect, he said, he isn’t sure what he would do differently and wishes that students had voiced their concerns earlier to open up a discussion about what they saw. “I know most of the students in my class,” he said, “I trust them. I believed their intentions were good. I saw all my students are open and caring and wanting to learn about differences.”

Though there is plenty of disagreement about the way the entire situation was handled, there seems to be agreement that more open dialogue and debate about sensitive issues needs to take place on Hamline’s campus, and there is no easy way to do that. Philion wanted to make it clear that he felt the importance of the City Pages story came not from his personal experience, but from exposing the stifling of dialogue that he saw happening on campus. In contrast, the main problem that Reynolds found in the article is the focus on this specific incident: “From what I gathered,” he said, “the administrative party line was that this was a specific incident and not to be addressed, and I agree with that.”

What is really needed, Reynolds said, is further opportunity to discuss the omnipresent issues of race and privilege in society. Gaetano voiced similar thoughts: “I’ve heard some people say that people need to develop a thicker skin. Or that we need to just get out of our comfort zones, [that] we need to encourage such debates, even if they get nasty...I disagree with all of that. We need to buildčnot re-build, but buildčtrust among people on this campusčtrust between students and faculty and trust between students. I don’t know how to begin doing that...but I think until something is done about the trust level, these problems-of communication and misunderstanding and fear of communicating honestly-will continue.”