Chartwells Receives Backlash Over Handwritten Internal Note

On Saturday, April 28, 2018, a student worker for Chartwells discovered a racial slur, which The Bottom Line will not detail out of respect for the minority students at Frostburg State, written on a piece of paper used in the Relay for Life catering held at the PE Center. The slur is perceived to have historical connections to lynching in the Jim Crow era of the South, bringing the issue of racism back to Frostburg State University.

A picture of the racist remark found its way to Twitter, where it received a wide array of backlash and disgust. This is not the first time racist remarks have come from Chartwells employees. Around New Year’s, a racist Snapchat caption was posted by a Chartwells employee and again received attention on Twitter. The New Year’s Snapchat, however, was not as well-known as the racist slur found on Saturday.

Student leaders from the Black Students Alliance (BSA), National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), and the Student Government Association (SGA) took the matter to the university administration. Students met with FSU President Ronald Nowaczyk; Tom Bowling, Vice President for Student Affairs; Bill Mandicott, Assisant Vice President for Student and Community Involvement; and Michael Lannon, Regional Director for Chartwells.

Accoring to President Nowaczyk’s email update, the meeting began by addressing that the slur may have been a miscommunication and that the Chartwells employee just meant to point out that the Relay for Life dinner would be cookout style. Then, the members of the meeting switched to address the overarching problem of racism at Frostburg State.

Chartwells then committed to partnering with FSU to participate in training exercises to improve diversity and inclusion among the catering company. The training will include workshops titled “Training the Trainers” performed by the National Coalition Building Institute. Chosen Chartwells employees will then be trained as facilitators and pair up with student leaders to teach current Chartwells employees the importance of diversity. Chartwells will ultimately work to employ more managers and student workers of minority groups.

The meeting also addressed other instances of racism both on and off the Frostburg campus. President Nowaczyk included the statement, “I very much valued the insights and constructive suggestions of our student leaders. One student described our conversation as having the potential to serve as a ‘turning point’ in the University’s ability to effectively respond to the needs of our students of color.”