Campus Informer - September 28, 2005

The color of hate in “Ithacompton,” Muslim Mormons, ghosts in Kansas and more news from schools across the country.

By Andrew Garib, Cornell University and Maggie Brock, University of South Carolina
Wednesday September 28, 2005

 
The Color of Cornell’s Hate
Cornell University

Cornell University’s The Cornell American has sparked controversy since its re-invention in 2003. But the Buchananite rag of racist, homophobic and misogynist fame has many progressive Cornell students up in arms. The American published its September 2005 issue as an exposé of race and crime in Ithaca. The issue, entitled “The Color of Cornell’s Crime: Unmasking the Face of Ithacompton,” featured a picture of seven young black men on its cover. Besides describing the popular hip-hop club culture on campus as “more appropriate for a National Geographic special than a dance party,” the issue featured an article (“The Dark Underbelly of Violent Crime”) comparing the relative dangerousness of blacks over whites: “Blacks are as much more dangerous than whites as men are more dangerous than women,” American contributor Chris Menzel writes. As if that’s not offensive enough, Menzel’s article cites “research” from the Virginia-based New Century Foundation – an organization listed by the Anti-Defamation League and the Southern Poverty Law Center as a hate group whose leader, according to the SPLC, is “a white supremacist who celebrates the ‘clear conception of the United States as a nation ruled by and for whites.’” Given this kind of bigotry, Cornellians should be surprised if the next issue of their favorite Neanderthal newspaper doesn’t feature at least one article citing Nazi race science.

 
Who Can Take Your Trash Out? The Can Man Can.
University of Nebraska-Lincoln

Phil Voigt, better known as “the Can Man” at the University of Nebraska, has been allowed to return to his self-delegated duties of making UNL’s Lincoln campus clean and recycling-friendly, after being banned from campus in November of 2003 under the university’s trespassing laws, according to the Daily Nebraskan. After an organized student push in support of their favorite weird, older non-student on campus, the administration realized that someone calling himself “The Can Man” couldn’t possibly be a threat to the university (possible exceptions include al Qaeda leader Ayman “The Can Man” al-Zawahiri). So, UNL revoked the ban and has allowed Voigt to return to his uncanny calling. Voigt’s student supporters raised a cheer upon hearing the university’s decision, and one student, poli-sci grad student Jessica Nelson, has even offered her own bicycle to replace the Can Man’s recently stolen wheels. “All he does is recycle cans,” said general studies major Ted McDevitt. “He’s not really hurting anyone. He seems like a pretty decent guy.” No word yet on whether the Department of Homeland Security plans to drop its Security Advisory Warning level to blue, or “guarded,” in response to UNL’s findings.

 
LDS Freshmen Challenges Muslim Stereotypes
Brigham Young University

Inspired by Katherine Bullock’s Rethinking Muslim Women and the Veil: Challenging Historical and Modern Stereotypes, Brigham Young freshman Amy Gordon began a project to explore issues surrounding public perceptions of religion and difference by donning a hijab, or traditional female Muslim headdress, while in the presence of unrelated males. As possibly the only woman wearing a hijab on a campus named after a historic leader of the Mormon church, Gordon, herself a Mormon, said she wishes to investigate the experiences of “the other” while questioning Western media’s portrayal of the hijab as an instrument of female subordination. “For those who choose to wear it as a symbol of their religiosity, their piety, their love of the Lord – that’s not a symbol of oppression at all,” the 18-year-old Connecticut native told The Daily Universe. “Just because some people twisted it, doesn’t mean that we should take away from those people their right to define the meaning of their own sacred objects.” Gordon says that while BYU students have been understanding of her project, she has received some interesting reactions from Provo, Utah locals. “I was sitting on the bus and two gentlemen sitting across from me were having a very loud conversation about how they didn’t like foreigners,” Gordon said. The open-minded mechanical engineering major plans to publish her experiences in a campus student journal.

 
Seeing Dead People in Kansas
Kansas State University

The most noted researcher at Kansas State University on Sunday night was not a member of the faculty, nor was he researching any of the five essential areas that compose K-State’s curriculum. 150 students gathered in the university’s Student Union Ballroom to hear John Zaffis for a different reason: "I thought it would be interesting," said Ryan Murry, freshman in modern languages. “I want to see a ghost.” John Zaffis, a paranormal investigator, came to K-State on Sunday to share his experiences with the supernatural. He regaled students with tales of his 32 years in the field of paranormal research. After the lecture, Zaffis led 60 students on a ghost hunt through their Manhattan Campus. When asked why he believed in the paranormal, Zaffis replied, “I know too much to not believe.” He then elaborated, “I’m not supposed to [believe] – I’m a Roman Catholic.” Zaffis refused to research any of the sites on campus beforehand, afraid of “tainting” the investigation. “Am I psychic? No," Zaffis said. "But can I feel and sense things after doing this for so long? Yes."

 
Banned Book Week on Campus
California State University – Fullerton

On October 2nd, a group of students gathered outside of Pollack Library to do an all day reading of Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury as a celebration of National Banned Books Week, which falls during the last week of September. Annie Knight, the organization’s 2005 chair, says that Fahrenheit 451 was a hit at last year’s event and will be read at all subsequent read-a-thons, explaining that “"[the novel] is pertinent to the theme of the week and gets the best response out of people.” Wendy McPherson, a political activist and public librarian from the area, noted, “Free speech is being suppressed. Banned Books Week [presents] a good way to educate the public about censorship.” McPherson will speak at this year’s event, noting that the right-wing political agenda of the current administration is “creating a backlash towards gay and lesbian speech,” and that “out of the 10 most challenged books in the country, three had gay themes.”