{
  "id": "2016-11-09-wellesley-college-harambee-house-incident",
  "slug": "wellesley-college-harambee-house-incident-2016-11-09",
  "institution": {
    "name": "Wellesley College",
    "shortName": "Wellesley",
    "state": "MA",
    "type": "private-liberal-arts",
    "alertSystemName": "Wellesley Emergency Alert (Rave Mobile Safety)",
    "enrollment": 2400
  },
  "incident": {
    "date": "2016-11-09",
    "type": "threat-of-violence",
    "cleryCategory": "advisory",
    "headline": "Two men shout campaign slogans near a cultural house; allegations unsubstantiated",
    "headlinePublic": "Two men shout campaign slogans near a cultural house; allegations unsubstantiated",
    "summary": "On Wednesday, November 9, 2016, the day after the 2016 presidential election, [two Babson College students drove around the Wellesley College campus](https://www.elitedaily.com/news/two-men-harass-wellesley-students/1687982) shouting slogans from Donald Trump's campaign and stopped near [Harambee House](https://www.wellesley.edu/harambee), Wellesley's African American cultural house. Some students alleged the men shouted slurs and that one spat at a student; a subsequent [Babson College investigation did not substantiate those allegations and cleared the two students](https://www.nbcboston.com/news/local/babson-students-cleared-of-wrongdoing-in-trump-taunts-at-wellesley-college/85993/). [Wellesley College President Paula Johnson](https://thewellesleynews.com/6910/news-investigation/wellesley-community-shaken-after-alleged-hate-crime-perpetrated-by-babson-students/) released a campus-wide statement that day, and [Babson President Kerry Healey followed with a forwarded apology](https://thewellesleynews.com/6910/news-investigation/wellesley-community-shaken-after-alleged-hate-crime-perpetrated-by-babson-students/).",
    "outcome": "Babson College launched an immediate investigation and initially barred the two students, who were not publicly identified in this archive, from campus. In December 2016 Babson [cleared the two students of any disciplinary violations](https://www.nbcboston.com/news/local/babson-students-cleared-of-wrongdoing-in-trump-taunts-at-wellesley-college/85993/), finding that available evidence did not substantiate the spitting or slur allegations and that the underlying speech was protected; the [campus ban was lifted](https://www.cbsnews.com/news/babson-lifts-ban-on-donald-trump-supporting-students/). Some Wellesley student organizations continued to object to the outcome. No physical injuries were reported.",
    "resolution": "unfounded",
    "casualties": {
      "killed": 0,
      "injured": 0
    }
  },
  "alerts": [
    {
      "sequence": 1,
      "type": "initial",
      "timestampApprox": "Afternoon of November 9, 2016, EST, after Wellesley Public Safety received reports of the incident at Harambee House",
      "channel": "email",
      "verbatimText": "",
      "isVerbatimConfirmed": false,
      "sourceUrl": "https://thewellesleynews.com/6910/news-investigation/wellesley-community-shaken-after-alleged-hate-crime-perpetrated-by-babson-students/",
      "sourceDescription": "Reconstructed from The Wellesley News and Elite Daily reporting on Wellesley Public Safety's initial campus advisory after the Harambee House incident",
      "annotations": []
    },
    {
      "sequence": 2,
      "type": "follow-up",
      "timestampApprox": "Evening of November 9, 2016, EST, when Wellesley President Paula Johnson released her campus-wide message",
      "channel": "email",
      "verbatimText": "This community's well-being—and all that word encompasses—is foremost on my mind right now.",
      "isVerbatimConfirmed": true,
      "sourceUrl": "https://thewellesleynews.com/6910/news-investigation/wellesley-community-shaken-after-alleged-hate-crime-perpetrated-by-babson-students/",
      "sourceDescription": "Excerpt from Wellesley College President Paula Johnson's November 9, 2016 campus-wide message, quoted in The Wellesley News",
      "annotations": [
        "Johnson's letter, issued on her first major test as president (she had begun her tenure on July 1, 2016), opened with this line, which The Wellesley News reproduced verbatim",
        "The phrase 'this community's well-being' folded all members of the Wellesley community into the institutional response without prejudging the Babson investigation that was concurrently underway",
        "Wellesley's full alert track on November 9 had two parts: the campus advisory from Public Safety (sequence 1) and Johnson's community letter (this sequence), only the Johnson sentence is publicly archived in verbatim form",
        "Babson President Kerry Healey's forwarded apology, included in Johnson's communication, is reported in The Boston Globe but not preserved in verbatim form"
      ],
      "characterCount": 91
    }
  ],
  "context": "[Wellesley College](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wellesley_College) is a private liberal arts women's college in Wellesley, Massachusetts, founded in 1870, and one of the original [Seven Sisters colleges](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seven_Sisters_(colleges)). With approximately 2,400 students, Wellesley has long been associated with women's leadership in US public life: Hillary Clinton ('69), Madeleine Albright ('59), and Soong Mei-ling ('17) are alumnae. On Wednesday, November 9, 2016 (the morning after the 2016 presidential election) [two students from neighboring Babson College drove around the Wellesley campus](https://www.elitedaily.com/news/two-men-harass-wellesley-students/1687982) shouting slogans from Donald Trump's campaign. They stopped near [Harambee House](https://www.wellesley.edu/harambee), Wellesley's African American cultural house. Some students alleged the men harassed students of color and that one spat at a student. Wellesley Public Safety issued a [campus advisory that afternoon](https://thewellesleynews.com/6910/news-investigation/wellesley-community-shaken-after-alleged-hate-crime-perpetrated-by-babson-students/), and President Paula Johnson followed with a campus-wide email that included a forwarded statement from Babson President Kerry Healey. Babson [initially barred the two students from campus](https://www.cbsnews.com/news/babson-lifts-ban-on-donald-trump-supporting-students/) but [later cleared them of any disciplinary violations](https://www.nbcboston.com/news/local/babson-students-cleared-of-wrongdoing-in-trump-taunts-at-wellesley-college/85993/), finding the allegations unsubstantiated, and lifted the ban after an investigation. The case is significant for the campus alert archive because it documents a politically charged hate-incident advisory at a women's college on the morning after a US presidential election, the kind of community-advisory message that does not meet Clery emergency-notification thresholds but is nevertheless a defining feature of modern campus communications. It is also a rare cross-institutional alert: the two individuals were students of one institution at the campus of another, requiring two presidents to coordinate the response.",
  "keyFindings": [
    "The incident occurred on November 9, 2016 (the day after the US presidential election) and is a documented example of post-election harassment targeting a women's college's African American cultural center",
    "The Wellesley advisory and President Johnson's campus-wide message were issued the same day, illustrating the rapid 'community advisory' track for non-Clery hate incidents",
    "The two individuals were Babson College students at a Wellesley site, producing an unusual cross-institutional alert with both presidents coordinating messaging",
    "Babson initially banned the students and later cleared them; the divergence between Wellesley's framing of 'hate crime' and Babson's eventual 'no wrongdoing' finding became a continuing point of community contention",
    "Harambee House was the symbolic and physical target, its specific identification as Wellesley's African American cultural center transformed the incident from harassment to alleged hate-targeting"
  ],
  "sources": [
    {
      "title": "Wellesley Community shaken after alleged hate crime perpetrated by Babson students - The Wellesley News",
      "url": "https://thewellesleynews.com/6910/news-investigation/wellesley-community-shaken-after-alleged-hate-crime-perpetrated-by-babson-students/",
      "type": "student-newspaper"
    },
    {
      "title": "Two Men Harass Wellesley Students Following Donald Trump's Win - Elite Daily",
      "url": "https://www.elitedaily.com/news/two-men-harass-wellesley-students/1687982",
      "type": "local-media"
    },
    {
      "title": "Babson College lifts ban on 2 Trump supporting-students; lawyer wants apology - CBS News",
      "url": "https://www.cbsnews.com/news/babson-lifts-ban-on-donald-trump-supporting-students/",
      "type": "local-media"
    },
    {
      "title": "Babson Students Cleared of Wrongdoing in Trump Taunts at Wellesley College - NBC Boston",
      "url": "https://www.nbcboston.com/news/local/babson-students-cleared-of-wrongdoing-in-trump-taunts-at-wellesley-college/85993/",
      "type": "local-media"
    },
    {
      "title": "Harambee House - Wellesley College",
      "url": "https://www.wellesley.edu/harambee",
      "type": "official-archive"
    },
    {
      "title": "Harambee House records - Wellesley College Archives",
      "url": "https://archives.wellesley.edu/repositories/2/resources/174",
      "type": "official-archive"
    }
  ],
  "confidence": "medium",
  "tags": [
    "threat-of-violence",
    "hate-incident",
    "womens-college",
    "seven-sisters",
    "private-liberal-arts",
    "massachusetts",
    "post-election",
    "harambee-house",
    "wellesley",
    "cross-institutional"
  ],
  "dateAdded": "2026-05-03",
  "lastUpdated": "2026-07-16",
  "addedBy": "ingestion"
}