Dean Kevin Shollenberger emailed CC, SEAS, and GS students this afternoon condemning one of the Marching Band's posters for Orgo Night tonight. The poster made a pun on the term "Gaza Strip." See below for Shollenberger's email, CUMB's response, and more interviews with bandies.
8:01 p.m.: Tonight in the lovely Butler 209 Spectrum will be liveblogging Orgo Night!
If you don't want to bathe in sweat, have actual studying to do, or hate Columbia traditions, then watch the livestream, courtesy of CUMB, and follow our liveblog tonight!
Find out all of the answers from Ziyad Abdelfattah, CC’15 and the Poet Laureate of CUMB, about what to expect tonight!
And, read this statement from the head manager of CUMB, Vicki Birmingham:
The Columbia University Marching Band would like to apologize to those members of our community hurt by recent promotional material. It was never our intention to offend or upset our peers, and we're sorry for distress we have caused. We have had productive meetings with administrative personnel and representatives from concerned student groups, and we will take this incident as a thought-provoking experience moving forward. However, although we understand the concerns of our peers, we feel the administrative response was unwarranted. We apologize for the impact this has had, but not for our exercising the right to free speech shared by every member of Columbia's community. Our major focus now remains presenting the best possible Orgo Night for our community.
We welcome any kind of constructive commentary on this event, and everyone is welcome to direct such concerns to head@cuband.org.
4:03 p.m.
In an email to the student body, Dean Shollenberger criticized what he called "offensive" posters advertising Orgo Night. The posters depicted the silhouette of a pole dancer with the caption "Gaza Strip. Everyone wants a piece."
While admonishing the Marching Band for the posters, Shollenberger affirmed the University's dedication to "freedom of expression -- even expression that can be offensive."
However, he stated that "as educators we also have a responsibility to criticize and condemn speech that would surely be felt to be alienating by members of our community."
He also offered weak praise for the band's conciliatory tone in the wake of the controversy, stating that their agreement to remove the posters and apologize to those who were offended "merits acknowledgment."
See the poster and Shollenberger's full email after the jump.
