Guilford College says no evidence of racial slurs against VSU soccer team, just 'poor sportsmanship'
A report by the North Carolina university where students reportedly directed ethnic slurs toward members of Virginia State University’s women’s soccer team last month said it found no evidence of any racist behavior toward the team.
Nonetheless, the president of Guilford College led an entourage of students and faculty Thursday to Ettrick to meet VSU president Dr. Makola Abdullah and others to personally apologize for the reception they received during the Sept. 26 match in Greensboro, North Carolina. Guilford spokesperson Ty Buckner told The Progress-Index that the private meeting was characterized as “a good meeting” and an apology was offered.
VSU posted an online statement demanding an apology from Guilford directly to the team for students reportedly shouting the N-word and making monkey sounds at them.
The report, a copy of which was given to The Progress-Index by Guilford, was ordered by Guilford president Kyle Farmbry as part of a formal apology, said school officials reviewed audio and video broadcasts of the match, and interviewed 30 people who were at the match. The behavior was limited to a group of 14 students in the bleachers.
Farmbry asked for the investigation after he received a letter from a VSU graduate who was at the game and noted "hostile and racist behavior" toward the VSU team.
“We could not verify that any racial epithets nor monkey noises were directed at VSU players from the students, staff, and parents present at the game,” read the report issued by Guilford athletic director Bill Foti and dean of students Steve Mencarini. It said the group exhibited “poor sportsmanship” primarily during the second half of the match, but the interviews and review of the broadcasts did not uncover anything racially motivated.
Guilford is a private liberal-arts college with approximately 1,200 students. It was founded in 1837 by the Society of Friends, also known as Quakers.
Virginia State University is a historically Black university.
“One student indicated that he heard a group of Black/African American students using the 'n’ word amongst themselves, but that the word was not directed toward any particular VSU player,” the report read. It called the crowd at the match “rowdier” than a typical women’s soccer match and said there was some cursing heard, but none of it appeared to be directed toward VSU’s team.
The report indicated that one Guilford student said something that was “out of line” but that others in the crowd told that student to “knock it off.”
Among the comments heard during the match, according to the report, were typical trash-talking associated with sports:
“Scoreboard”
“You suck”
“Your ankles got broken”
“That’s a foul”
“She won’t make a difference” (when VSU subbed in a player)
“They’ve got water over there if you need it”
“Gatorade” (reference to a sports video game that shows the Gatorade bottle image if there is a tired player)
“Nah, nah, nah, nah, hey, hey, hey, goodbye”
“Weight room”
“Go back to Virginia”
“Get the bus ready”
Guilford won the contest 8-1.
As for the allegations that students made monkey sounds toward the team, the report said it could find no corroboration of that
“One student heard the allegation about monkey noises through a Facebook post he had read,” it stated. “He shared that there were no monkey noises from the student section. The audio recording also does not provide verification of any animal noises made in the crowd.”
A public-safety officer attempted to calm the rowdy students down but was unsuccessful, the report said. The game manager – the person in charge of overseeing crowd control – “should have been a more active participant in managing the crowd,” it added.
As a result, Guilford has ordered more training for game managers, an increase in public-address announcements about crowd behavior and signs posted at the venues dictating behavior expectations.
Guilford also is expected to complete a separate report for review against the student code of conduct. One unidentified student-athlete was suspended from a future match for violating conduct expectations, and the school said it anticipates “having judicial conversations” with three students about the incident.
As of Thursday afternoon, VSU had not commented further on the incident. University spokesperson Gwen Dandridge said no one at VSU had seen the Guilford report, but she confirmed the meeting with the Guilford representatives took place on campus.
Bill Atkinson (he/him/his) is an award-winning journalist who covers breaking news, government and politics. Reach him at batkinson@progress-index.com or on X (formerly known as Twitter) at @BAtkinson_PI.
This article originally appeared on The Progress-Index: Guilford report indicates no racism toward VSU soccer team
