Controversy surrounding an off-campus party mocking Black History Month has set off a series of actions that could threaten the free exchange of ideas at the University of California – San Diego.
Last weekend a number of UCSD students, some of them fraternity members, held an off-campus party entitled the “Compton Cookout” to mock Black History Month. The party was advertised on Facebook and invitees were encouraged to wear specific outfits and act out racial stereotypes of African Americans. The party set off a wave of protest from the African American community at UCSD who were later joined by state lawmakers.
Unfortunately the story doesn’t end there. In response to the campus outrage, the campus television station, The Koala, aired a segment mocking the protestors and using derogatory slurs for African Americans.
In response, Associated Students (AS) of UCSD President Ustav Gupta announced that all 33 media organizations at UCSD would have their funding frozen until new rules of conduct were written, and that the AS was committed to defunding the Koala. The University is now investigating and threatening to punish the students that threw and promoted the party.
Like or hate the party theme and the Koala’s coverage, the AS and University’s actions violate the First Amendment and have no place at a University. If student organizations have to worry about punishment for expressing their views (whether in a party or other event) and student media outlets cannot control the content of their reporting, the notion of a marketplace of ideas on campus rings hollow and students lose out.