Queer Coalition KryStal party incites controversy

Hayley Tsukayama Staff Writer

Heated discussion over the “KryStal” party, hosted by Queer Coalition of Vassar College (QCVC), stirred the student and faculty communities this past week. QCVC had designed the event to glorify the “decadent excesses of early 1990s NYC club culture.”

The controversy stemmed from the party’s name, which some felt was disrespectful to the ongoing struggle with methamphetamines faced by much of the country’s gay community. Crystal methamphetamine, also called “crystal,” was a large part of the ’90s club culture, especially among young gay men. The party itself was approved by the Vassar Student Association (VSA) before a theme or name was set.

One of the party’s planners, Austin Clark ’08, insisted that the name “KryStal” had nothing to do with drugs. Clark, who is not a member of QCVC, and co-planner Steve LaVoie ‘06 originally decided to help plan the party at a Blegen House staff meeting, where LaVoie is an intern.

“We came upon ‘KryStal’ because it was catchy,” said LaVoie.

Clark added, “I thought of [KryStal] as a jewel; other people thought of Cristal [the champagne]. It was unusual, and…we left it purposefully ambiguous.” Both said they thought the name perfectly described the energetic club culture they hoped the event would emulate.

Rahn Kim ’08, a former member of QCVC, was immediately taken aback by the idea of KryStal when she heard about it in a meeting for the annual Circles Prom, an event she organized. According to Kim, a QCVC member said in that meeting that the party’s name was a “double entendre for crystal meth.”

The language of one poster, which read, “imagine a place where...the substance is legendary” only reinforced this idea for Kim. After notifying QCVC and LaVoie, Kim and Shaina Koval ’09 posted fliers on campus with statistics about the meth epidemic and its impact on the gay community. She considered the campaign successful, though she saw some of her fliers being thrown away.

QCVC member Ethan Ngyuen ’06 was also offended by the party’s themes. “This party was celebrating a death culture,” said Nguyen. “You have to be realistic.” Ngyuen sent a letter to the administration in which he outlined concerns about stereotypes and the message QCVC was sending to the Vassar community. Clark and LaVoie interpreted the letter as a personal attack, but Ngyuen said he never meant any part of his letter to be read as such.

After several meetings with everyone involved, the administration permitted the April 21 event to proceed as planned, but asked QCVC to send out a campus-wide e-mail explaining the dangers of meth and the reasoning behind the name “KryStal.”

Dean of the College JJ Jackson also asked that Clark and LaVoie redesign the posters to remove any references to “substance.” These requests were fulfilled, but Campus Activities removed the new posters because they still included the word “KryStal.”

After QCVC’s statement went out to the campus on April 20, the protestors enlisted the support of Adjunct Associate Professor of English Judith Nichols, Assistant Professor of English Kiese Laymon, and Professor of English Pat Wallace, and others. Associate Professor of English Hesook Chang was also opposed to the event. Faculty members sent e-mails to Jackson and Associate Dean of the College Ed Pittman protesting the event. They expressed their unhappiness with the party’s glorification of a drug culture, though none accused the party of actually promoting drug use.

President of the College Fran Fergusson also expressed disapproval. In an e-mailed statement, she said, “The name for the party was a clear reference to the drug and any other interpretation is disingenuous at best. I have the greatest of respect for...Vassar’s GLBTQ community, so I was saddened that this became a controversy for them.”

Fergusson asked that the name “KryStal” be removed from all posters, but she did not ask for the party itself be cancelled.

QCVC Co-Chair Laura Kuper ’07 said that it is “important to explore the fine line between using positive aspects of a community that might be stereotyped negatively” and that QCVC “came close or maybe crossed” that line.

Jackson said, “As it turned out, the party did not involve free-flowing drugs and sexual abandon, but careless or thoughtless actions caused unnecessary rifts in our fragile community cloth. We have to care enough to think first.”

Editor's note: The print version of this article appeared in the 4.28.06 issue of The Miscellany News and mistakenly attributed the removal of the second version of the signs to Campus Life. Campus Activities removed the signs, not Campus Life.