Anita Varma Senior Editor

The Imperialist has continued to stir controversy in the Vassar community, and has recently been covered in publications and websites that are not affiliated with the College.

Vassar on UPN 9

UPN 9, a New York television station, aired a news segment about the continuing controversy surrounding The Imperialist on Tuesday, Oct. 11. The Imperialist is a publication by the Moderate, Independent and Conservative Alliance (MICA). MICA is a Vassar Student Association organization.

Reporter Giovanna Drpic’s UPN piece included interviews with three students, including James Cantres ’08, Rachel Elliot ’06, and MICA president Matt Ambrose ’07. Drpic also interviewed Dean of the College JJ Jackson.

“This is the newsletter that has gotten some students here at Vassar College very upset,” said Drpic as she held up the most recent copy of The Imperialist. “They call it blatant racism, and they want something done about it.”

Cantres and Elliot spoke about their reactions to The Imperialist with Drpic.

“I was outraged,” said Cantres. “I felt like I was being attacked.”

“For me to get here and still feel uncomfortable is a shame, and its outrageous, and its ridiculous,” said Elliot.

Drpic said, “Racial tensions have been sparked at Vassar College.” The headline of the segment read, “Vassar Campus Group is Accused of Racism.”

Students in this segment specifically addressed The Imperialist article “Race and Freedom,” in which the ALANA Center and Blegen House are termed “ghettos.”

The full quote from the anonymous article in The Imperialist reads: “How is diversity achieved when those students are voluntarily confining themselves to ghettos of the ALANA Center and Blegen House? I find the objective of diversity to be utterly meritless, suggesting that our colleges should become some zoological preserve in some paternalistic attempt [to] benefit our ‘non diverse’ students” (36).

In the UPN segment, Ambrose spoke about the aim of the original article. “The point of the article was to emphasize that if you emphasize diversity too much, these places become places where only a certain type of people feel welcome, and it becomes like a zoo, which is a really bad way to try and put it,” he said.

“I think that our job is to help students to deal with their response to it and to somehow derive from it some constructive dialogue,” said Jackson in the UPN interview.

Elliot spoke about a cartoon in The Imperialist as well, which was captioned “A Black student confronting a White Supremacist on Vassar’s campus.” “She was very sexualized, and that just feeds into and perpetuates stereotypes,” said Elliot.

Director of Media Relations Jeff Kosmacher said that he thought students articulated their views well in their interviews with UPN. “I think that in the nature of a story like this is that [UPN was] looking for controversy,” said Kosmacher. “[But] it was much more substantive, rather than sensationalized.”

The Imperialist coverage on the Internet

In terms of outside media coverage of the College, most journalists go through the office of College Relations. According to Vice President for College Relations Susan DeKrey, Drpic contacted College Relations while compiling interviews for the segment.

“If students are contacted by a journalist, we’re here to help them prepare,” said DeKrey.

The Imperialist controversy has received attention from several Internet publications. Insidehighered.com and thefire.org have both published articles and commentary about the incident with interviews from Vassar students.

Charles Mitchell, posting in Fire’s The Torch, wrote, “If students there truly care about freedom of speech—which student government members did in declining to truly censor The Imperialist—they will now closely scrutinize that immoral code.”

Another posting on the internet was made about The Imperialist on overthrow.com, entitled “Black College Students Are A ‘Zoological’ Oddity.”

A meeting in the ALANA Center about further action

On Wednesday, Oct. 12, approximately 40 concerned students gathered in the ALANA Center at 8:30 p.m. These students discussed their dissatisfaction with the recent VSA resolution that stated MICA would hold a forum to discuss the issues in The Imperialist. Students at this meeting also talked about their next course of action.

Adam Lee ’06 spoke about the VSA resolution concerning MICA and the article on overthrow.com. “A threat to any student at Vassar is a threat to all students,” said Lee.

Students who planned the meeting informed others about it by sending out e-mail and issuing a message to all members of the “The Entire Vassar Campus” group on College networking site facebook.com. The Facebook message, issued by Jeanique Tucker ’07, read, “A group of students have already begun to formulate plans to make the administration accountable for its continued inaction and to ensure that these incidents do not repeat themselves. It is important that the entire Vassar community works together to support this endeavor. An open meeting will be held tonight at 8:30 p.m. in the ALANA center to discuss how we can begin this process.”

The meeting in the ALANA Center ended a few minutes before 11 p.m. By that time, there were 17 students present.

Campus response to outside media coverage and content of The Imperialist

Kosmacher addressed the overthrow.com article as well. “Somehow the more attention you give them, it gives them more fodder,” he said. “Obviously we’re very dismayed…but at the same time, if it got back to them that we were gagging them, it would give them another cycle [to write about].”

Associate Dean of the College and Head of Campus Life Ed Pittman said that Campus Life is offering support for students with this issue. “The Campus Life Office coordinates a Campus Life Response Team, which involves various administrators, to deal with issues that impact the campus community,” he wrote in an e-mailed statement on Thursday, Oct. 13.

“We will meet on Friday to discuss how to support students in whatever way possible,” Pittman continued. “The Imperialist publication has caused great distress on campus and supporting the safety of students is a number one concern now.”

Jackson issued an email to all students about The Imperialist on Thursday, Oct. 13.

“We must take seriously the ‘attack,’ shock, and anger that some students feel as a result of The Imperialist articles,” she wrote. “At the same time, I agree with the VSA's decision that censorship of MICA and cancellation of the group's publication would not be an appropriate response.”

MICA asks for extension on forum, VSA to re-examine Imperialist issue after October break

Under the resolution passed by VSA on Sept. 18, MICA was to hold a forum before October break.

At the VSA meeting on Sunday, Oct. 9, Ambrose went to the VSA to ask for an extension for the dialogue. Victor Ray ’07 and Andrew Block ’06 attended VSA to speak about the same topic, and said that MICA had ample time since the resolution to put together the forum.

Rodems said that the resolution states that Council will revisit the issue after October break if the forum does not occur before break, and told Ambrose not to do a rushed job. No one made a motion for any amendments to the resolution. The forum was not held before October break, and MICA posters in the dorms advertise that it will be held on Wednesday, Oct. 26.