CU prof pushing sanctions after club's 'gangsta' meet

Julie Poppen, Rocky Mountain News

Published October 21, 2006 at midnight

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The University of Colorado's Ski and Snowboard Club was tapping into the hip-hop culture it embraces when it advertised a "gangsta"-themed gathering last month, an organizer said Friday.

The fliers featured several black gangsta rappers and faux bullet holes.

But students and faculty of color didn't see it that way and now a CU professor - in a letter made public last week - is demanding that CU's largest and perhaps most visible campus club be sanctioned.

The flap comes as the mostly white Boulder campus strives to increase diversity and improve the climate for minority students.

The gangsta theme was dropped and an apology issued. The club's leadership is attending diversity training and doing what the administration has asked of them, Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs Ron Stump said Friday.

University officials have met with students of color and the ski and snowboard club together and separately to hash out an action plan.

But that doesn't erase what happened a month ago when at least 350 of the 2,800 members of the club, also known as Boulder Freeride, gathered on campus. Some members who hadn't checked their e-mail showed up in baggy pants and "bling" hoping to win prizes.

A club leader apologized, but lap dances and a freestyle rap contest ensued.

CU Black Student Alliance members who accepted an invitation to attend described it as a modern-day minstrel show.

Leaders say that's not what the club had in mind.

"We had no intention of offending anybody," said Chris Garcin, the 21-year-old president of the ski and snowboard club. "We've been doing absolutely our best to address the situation."

Stump agreed.

"We're feeling good about how they responded," he said.

Stump said the club's actions are protected by the First Amendment. Fliers and clothing may be offensive, but "there's been court cases over that."

That's not how CU gender and women's studies professor Joanne Belknap sees it.

She recalls being a professor at the University of Cincinnati in the 1980s when a white fraternity was suspended for one year for holding a "Martin Luther King Trash Party."

"This is beyond free speech," Belknap said. "It is unacceptable and needs a serious message from the CU leadership."

Last week Belknap wrote a letter to the regents, President Hank Brown and other campus leaders asking that the club be sanctioned.

"At best, CUSSC is completely unconcerned that they've offended some of the students and faculty of color," she wrote. "At worst, they are intent on proving they can mock underrepresented racial/ethnic groups using racist stereotypes and co-opting cultural traditions."

Belknap's letter mysteriously showed up on the American Renaissance Web site, which describes itself as "a conservative monthly publication" promoting "white racial positions."

She has since received racist e-mail.

The Boulder campus is still reeling from a string of racist incidents last year, including a death threat e-mailed to a black student leader and fliers posted on campus by a white supremacist group.

Sociology professor Hillary Potter, who is black, said she doesn't believe enough is being done to curb racism on campus. She said she was disgusted when she heard about the ski and snowboard club gathering.

"They may as well have been in black face, jumping around and carrying on," Potter said.

Garcin said he wants to make sure the club is welcoming to all students.

"My hope is we can reconcile the bad feelings toward the club," he said. "We want to make sure that no one feels left out of it."

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