UNIVERSITY STUDENTS STAGE SIT-IN TO PROTEST WORKER'S SUSPENSION

About 20 black students at Southeast Missouri State University Monday staged a sit-in in the University Center to protest the suspension of a black member of the Campus Assistance Center staff.

The CAC staff member, Debra Mitchell-Braxton, assistant director of the center, was suspended for five days without pay, effective Friday.

School officials said Mitchell-Braxton was disciplined for "unprofessional" conduct that occurred in the office April 5. They said the action was witnessed by staff, students and visitors.

The protesting students claimed she was suspended because she is black.

Mitchell-Braxton said a confrontation occurred in an office area with the spouse of another university employee who frequents campus and university offices. The confrontation was of a "personal nature" and related to a federal lawsuit filed about a year ago by her against the university, said Mitchell-Braxton.

"This was a non-visitor," she said, "and I have been sanctioned for five days without pay because I refused to discuss something of a personal nature. And there was no due process involved in this."

Mitchell-Braxton said that after 23 days of investigation her supervisor suspended her without pay Friday morning. "I didn't have the opportunity to know who my accuser was or have a hearing or anything like that."

Art Wallhausen, assistant to the university president, said the suspension was warranted. The action was taken following an internal investigation in which written statements were taken, he said.

"It was not related to her race or any legal unpleasantness between herself and the university," he said. "The conduct was considered to have exceeded the bounds of acceptable behavior, and as such could not go unaddressed."

On June 10, Mitchell-Braxton filed a federal lawsuit contending that she wasn't hired as director of the Campus Assistance Center because of her race. School officials repeatedly have denied that racism was involved in the hiring decision.

The university is again looking to fill the position of center director. The students and Mitchell-Braxton charged the university would use the suspension to once again deny her the administrative post.

"This is the only thing that's a bad mark on a my career in 17 years of service to the university," Mitchell-Braxton said. "And right before they begin making a selection" for the director's position.

Armed with homemade signs charging racism, the students sat in two lines outside the door of the Campus Assistance Center on the University Center's third floor.

Several signs carried an acronym for SEMO: "Slowly Evacuating Minorities Out."

One of the protesters was Loretta Cobb. After two years as a student worker in the Campus Assistance Center, Cobb walked off the job Monday morning to protest the suspension.

The protesters said they haven't been told why Mitchell-Braxton was suspended. But they all maintained that no action by her would justify such a suspension.

"It is obvious racism," Cobb said. "I do not feel it is right."

Students said Mitchell-Braxton had been a dedicated university employee for 17 years and didn't deserve such punishment.

Students maintained that the university was punishing her because she had filed a lawsuit against the school.

Mitchell-Braxton wasn't quick to involve racism as an issue in her suspension. She said: "I hate to go back to racism, but it's hard for black Americans to stand a chance at Southeast. I've been whipped down to a pulp."

Mitchell-Braxton is expect to return to her office Friday.