Well, this was a fine how-do-you-do first thing this morning. I arrived at work to discover the following flier hanging on the front door to the building where I work (click for larger view):
Michael beat me to the punch on bringing it to the attention of The Powers That Be:
Linda Millstone (Equal Opportunity) and Soncia Reagins-Lilly (Dean of Students):
I hope that this email sparks concern.
Attached, please find a copy of what appears to be a secret flyer produced by the Phi Gamma Delta “FIJI” Fraternity specifically targeting minorities as undesirables, using slurs, in some instances, to hammer home the point.
I am not a student of UT, but I AM an employee. This flyer was posted on the front doors of the West Mall Building (where I work) for me and everyone else arriving at work this morning (3/06/07) to see. It appears that the posting may have been done by someone else who is equally disgusted by these outrageous, backwards policies.
It is my hope that the University will act quickly to censure this kind of nonsense or at least publicly distance itself from it. I am a proud UT staffer. It is very unfortunate that this university runs the risk of public humiliation at the hands of a few bigoted individuals.
Please reply acknowledging your receipt of this email so I know where this matter rests and whether or not I may need to take further action.
I greatly appreciate your involvement.
So, I could only tag on to what he said (probably better than could I):
I see that my colleague has beaten me to the punch on this — and more eloquently than I could have done myself.
I would like to add my voice to his in raising concerns about the document in question, which I also saw posted on the front door of the West Mall Building when I arrived this morning.. If the document is, indeed, genuine, then steps need to be taken to censure the group that produced it.
I spent Saturday working at Explore UT, an event designed to showcase the University’s programs and offerings in all of their diversity, an event in which I am proud to take part each year. I would find it significantly more difficult to devote my time and energy to such an event if I knew that at the same time the University was also supporting student groups that espouse contradictory philosophies. In fact, I would find it more difficult to support the University at all were that the case.
Thank you for your time and attention to this matter.
It will be interesting to see if and where this goes …
Update: The first round of responses is back. The Office of the Dean of Students has been assigned the issue (or so we’ve been told by the Equal Opportunity folks), and their response is: Thank you for contacting the Dean of Students Office regarding this issue. I have forwarded this information to the appropriate staff members in the office. We certainly understand and share your concerns. We are in the process of taking the fliers down and investigating their distribution.
Again, it will be interesting to see if this goes anywhere.
Tags: homophobia, racism, texas, university
