While April 1 is often known for its jokes and pranks, fliers posted in residence halls and around campus in the early hours of April Fools' Day drew varied responses from within the Boston College community that caused University officials to take action. Five different fliers with forged Office of the Dean of Student Development (ODSD) approval stamps were placed in elevators, around dining halls, and throughout BC, and attempted to satirize several current campus issues.
Most of the fliers dealt with neutral issues, including the listserv incident and proposed "shuttle bus passes," but one, titled "Black Baby Petting Zoo," crossed a controversial line in the eyes of the school.
The flier featured a photo of black children, and said students could skip service trips and "satisfy your need to cleanse your whiteness" while staying at BC. The ODSD was notified of the fliers and worked with the BC Police Department and ResLife to remove them before most students were up for their first class.
After some detective work by the BCPD and information from a resident assistant, six sophomores were found to be involved in the postings. the ODSD is currently meeting with the students before taking further action.
The controversial flier has been called offensive and racist by some due to its prominent headline and photo. Dean of the Office of Student Development Paul Chebator said he had talked to some of the students involved, which he described as a "racially diverse group," and they had said they had not meant to be offensive.
"Their motivation, as [one student] explained it to me, was a social critique of people who go on service trips and come back and forget about social justice issues," Chebator said. "They were just not thinking about the consequences of it or how inflammatory it could be."
Chebator said that the students initiated a letter of apology to be published in The Heights (see Letters, A6) to address the BC community, but that further disciplinary action was still pending.
"It is clear that their intent was not racially motivated or racist. However, they now understand that their actions could be construed as racist, and the University does not tolerate such behavior," Chebator said. "They need to be addressed and educated about the content of the fliers. This is an educational, not a punitive process."
Rajwantie Sahai, AHANA Leadership Council (ALC) co-president and A&S '08, said that while at first glance she had thought the flier was a racial attack, upon further examination she didn't think the flier was racist.
"When I first saw the flier, I think it had shock value. I didn't bother scrolling down [the computer screen on which she viewed the scanned flier], I was so stuck on the headline. I just thought, 'Is this really happening at this time in the year?'" Sahai said. "So originally I did have a problem with the flier because I didn't really process at first what it was trying to say. It jarred me at first and scared me. Then I realized exactly what they were trying to point out."
Sahai viewed the fliers as primarily a commentary on service trips, as well as the culture and academic curriculum at BC. She said participants in the service trips often come from economically affluent backgrounds and take the wrong approach to the trips.
"I think the point was to make people think about service and what the term means. The point is to join with the community and against the injustices they face, not just go for a week or two and then come back, drink, and show off pictures of whatever young children you were having a good time with," Sahai said. "It was definitely an attack on the culture and climate at BC."
Sahai said that while she thought the flier was specifically targeting service groups and was not racist, it did point out a racial group and took a radical, abrasive approach to the issue.
"While I don't think the flier was racist or racially charged, I can understand how it would offend people at BC because it is intense and is a very extreme way of grabbing attention. If you throw out the term black, Latino, or any racial group, people automatically freeze up because they often see it as an attack," Sahai said. "But I think that it's a discussion that could have been raised a long time ago and is a discussion that needs to continue. Not only does it reflect on how students approach this action but also affects how the University can accommodate this kind of discussion about race theory itself."
Laura Darcy, a student leader for a recent Lynch School of Education service and immersion trip to the Dominican Republic and LSOE '09, was upset by the flier's attack on service trips.
"I think there are some obvious racist and ignorant undertones to the flier as a whole. I found the flier incredibly offensive, but also having just coming back from a service trip I was sort of doubly offended with this sort of racist sentiment and also the implications that it seemed to be calling service trips out as a whole. It's not so much that I have a problem with someone disagreeing with whatever values they think are associated with service trips, but the way they went about it," Darcy said.
Darcy said she thought the fliers were a cowardly and ignorant way of addressing whatever problems the individuals had with service trips, and that students on her service trip as well as faculty members who saw the fliers were upset by them.
"I heard it was an April Fools' joke and I don't understand how at a campus like BC, where people are well educated, people can find that funny or have it be entertained as an April Fools' joke," Darcy said.
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