How some ATM students planned to celebrate MLK day

Well, at least they're acknowledging MLK. To their credit, I believe the ATM administration is against this.


Ghetto parties' fuel A&M probe

By CRAIG KAPITAN, HOLLY HUFFMAN and JOHN LEBAS
Eagle Staff Writers

University officials have launched an investigation at a Texas A&M University dormitory after learning that students were planning a “ghetto party” for Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

Fliers at Walton Hall advertised the off-campus event, at which participants were to mimic African-American stereotypes.

“We’re just having a hard time trying to understand why people would think this would be OK,” said Ron Sasse, director of A&M’s Department of Residence Life.

Sasse found out about the event after an anonymous note was sent to his office. The note indicated that similar activities had been staged for several years.

The investigation, which will determine if any rules or policies were violated, is being focused on the Walton Hall advisers and the dorm’s student organization.

While the student handbook specifically addresses inclusion and diversity, Sasse said he wasn’t sure if any specific rules were violated.

“It’s really more of an education issue from our perspective than a punishment issue,” he said.

University officials also met with the Walton Hall advisers and went door to door with them to hand out “strongly worded letters,” according to an A&M news release.

“Such incidents ... are a disgrace and embarrassment to Texas A&M University,” the letter stated. “[Such] events or acts ... only disgrace, divide and tear down the inclusive community Texas A&M is working so hard to build.”

The letter also encouraged students with knowledge of the parties to come forward for the investigation.

Such “ghetto parties” are not an unknown phenomenon on college campuses. One of the most notorious occurred in November 1998 at a Dartmouth University fraternity party, which drew national media attention and heated protests.

So far, A&M officials said, they believe the parties have been limited to past and present Walton Hall residents.

This is not the first time in recent years that Texas A&M students have stirred racial sensitivities.

Last January, a cartoon published in The Battalion student newspaper sparked cries of racism. The cartoon depicted a black woman with an apron and exaggerated facial features scolding her meek son for a poor test grade.

The controversy subsided after the newspaper’s editor apologized, but many African Americans and others across the state said the cartoon showed a deeper problem of racial ignorance at A&M.

Also last year, a major in-house study showed that many minority students declined to attend A&M because they found it unwelcoming. Those who did enroll became more displeased with the campus environment with each passing year, the same study found.

About 85 percent of the campus is white, and the university has lost minority faculty and students in recent years despite retention efforts.

A&M, which for years was all-white, still carries a reputation among some Texans as a place that is unfriendly to minorities and resistant to ethnic diversity.

University President Robert Gates has made greater diversity a priority of his administration. He has announced plans to appoint a vice president for diversity in a highly visible effort to attract more minorities to campus.

“I think certainly it is counterproductive to what we’re trying to do here,” university spokeswoman Cindy Lawson said of the party late Thursday night. “Clearly, it’s disgusting. We have to do everything in our power to confront it.”

Lawson said officials were disappointed that the event had gone on for years without their knowledge and no one took a stand until now.

“It just reiterates that we will have to work harder at this and that it’s a continuing process,” she said.

At Walton Hall, resident director Shannon Ensom said she first found out about the party Tuesday. She and the dorm’s 11 resident advisers have met each night since to discuss the party and how it should be addressed, she said.

“I just want to make it really clear — it’s not anything that I or my staff are condoning,” Ensom said.

The staff has removed flyers advertising the party that were posted across the dorm and replaced them with flyers publicizing a sorority-sponsored Martin Luther King Jr. Freedom March. All Walton staff will be attending the march and are offering to take residents with them, Ensom said.

“Apparently ... there are some uninformed residents,” she said. “We will take this opportunity to do some educational programs and diversity training.”

But a 20-year-old junior who asked not to be identified said he still planned to attend the off-campus party. He said he didn’t think that any of his fellow dormmates were upset by the “ghetto party” concept.

Another Walton resident said he hadn’t realized that the party was being thrown on the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday. After realizing that, he said, he could see why it was considered offensive.

But his friend, who doesn’t live in Walton, said that anyone offended by the party was being “too politically correct.”

Senior Greg Hodges, 21, said he didn’t plan on attending, but only because his friends weren’t planning on going. He added that he didn’t believe that the party was offensive as long as nothing “serious” happened.

“This was just meant to be done in good humor,” he said.

But 18-year-old Walton freshman Akeal Hawkins, who only learned about the party after receiving the university’s letter, said he was offended that fellow Aggies would throw a “ghetto party” on MLK Day.

“I didn’t expect this from Texas A&M at all,” said Hawkins, who is black. “You think that this campus is like family.”

 

Link

http://www.theeagle.com/aandmnews/011703ghettoparties.htm


What's a wife-beater party?

Rice Rocket, the fact that it is planned on MLK day is in rather poor taste.