A couple of days ago, an incident at Duke University has reminded America much progress is still needed to reduce racial tensions. For a recap, a professor at Duke University sent an email that urged Chinese students to not speak their native language. Many people condemned this email, calling it racially offensive.

However, this isn’t the first time this professor has sent a racially insensitive email, as she sent a similar one back in February of last year encouraging non-native speakers to speak English. Although the professor stepped down from her advising role, she remains a faculty member.

These incidents are nothing new. In fact, NC State has experienced a couple of racial incidents this academic year, ranging from the use of racial slurs in a group chat to flyers originating from an alt-right forum spotted across campus. Colleges across the U.S. have seen an increase in hate crime, according to the FBI.

This is a huge problem. Racial discrimination can heavily impact a student’s academic success. Hate crimes can make a student feel unwelcome on their campus, which can lead to stress, low self-esteem, depression and other mental issues. These consequences can severely inhibit a student’s academic success, impacting their ability to receive a job in the future. Clearly, staff and students need to do a better job accommodating people from different cultures.

So, what can we do to better to make NC State more welcoming to students from different backgrounds?

As a student, I would recommend attending a culture club or enrolling in a foreign studies class. These clubs and courses can provide insight into the history and attitudes of a culture. By taking these courses and attending these clubs, students could be more appreciative towards other cultures and thus be more accommodating to new incoming students.

Clubs like the Asian Students Association host events which aim to raise awareness for other cultures on campus, as well as provide a community for students of different cultural backgrounds. The foreign language departments also offer courses exploring the culture of places where those languages are spoken.

For NC State faculty and staff, there should be seminars that employees can attend to learn about students who come from various backgrounds, and learn how their environment can influence their learning and education. This could help professors reflect on how they treat students from different backgrounds and what they can do to be more accommodating.

In the midst of these racial incidents across college campuses, students and staff should be more aware of how they treat one another. The way a student feels about their campus can impact their academic success, so students and staff should be more accommodating to one another. If students and staff can’t attend an event that exposes them to different cultures, the least we can do is respect one another.