Fwd: {Disarmed} [tupocc] "Ghetto" Party Stirs Controversy at UT Law School

'Ghetto' party photos stir controversy at UT law school

Dean admonishes students to 'think twice' and consider possible
consequences to their careers in the future.

By Ralph K.M. Haurwitz
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Friday, October 13, 2006

The dean of the School of Law at the University of Texas has urged
students to "think twice" and "think twice again" about their future
conduct after the Internet posting of photographs taken at an
off-campus party organized around a "ghetto" theme.

The photos showed the students holding 40-ounce bottles in brown
paper bags and wearing Afro wigs, gold teeth and such gang-related
attire as bandanas, according to students who saw the images. Some of
the party-goers wore name tags with names such as "Tanika" or "Jesus"
to play on a black or Hispanic stereotype, the students said. The
photos are no longer online.

UT Law Dean Larry Sager sent an e-mail to all law students last week
asserting that the party "was easily understood to have negative
racial overtones." In addition, he wrote, such behavior risks damage
to the law school's reputation and to the career prospects of the
students involved.

"Should the possibility of this sort of conduct present itself,
please, please think twice," Sager wrote. "And then think twice
again."

The dean met this week with about 20 students who attended the party,
which was not sanctioned by the law school.

"This is not an occasion of discipline but of education," Sager said
Thursday. "I would say their widely expressed sentiment is an
insistence on the innocence of their mind-set and an agreement that
it was foolish and something they regret."

Race relations at UT - and at the law school in particular - have
been a sensitive matter for many years. Blacks were barred from
admission to the law school until the U.S. Supreme Court ordered a
black man admitted in 1950. In recent years, an outdoor statue of
civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. has been vandalized twice.

About 70 of UT's roughly 1,300 law students are black, according to
preliminary enrollment figures from the university. There are about
800 white students, 225 Hispanic students, 75 Asian students, 55
foreign students and 75 whose ethnicities were unknown.

Several students of various races and ethnicities said the party and
photos reflect negatively on the law school and its students.

"I thought it was insensitive," said Iman Houston, a law student who
is a member of the Thurgood Marshall Legal Society, a group
representing African American law students, and who serves on the
executive board of the National Black Law Students Association.
"Given the inflammatory past of this law school, we have to be
conscious of the image we portray to the community."

Theme parties have stirred controversy at other schools as well.
Students at Baylor University wore tank tops, visors and bandanas at
an "E-Dawg" party in September. E-Dawg is the name of a black rapper.

Some UT law students didn't find the ghetto party troubling. Rodolfo
Segura, a first-year law student who is Mexican American, said
get-togethers built around a theme - including "pimp and ho" parties,
where attendees dress as pimps or prostitutes - are fairly common
among college students of various races and ethnicities.

Sager said he didn't think the episode reflects underlying racial or
ethnic tension at the law school, whose student body has become more
diverse in recent years, thanks in part to recruiting by
administrators.

"There may be aspects of popular culture with which students are
surrounded which nevertheless can be very injurious to fellow
students, the school and their own careers," the dean said. "In that
sense, this is a potentially useful educational moment."

rhaurwitz@statesman.com; 445-3604

Additional material from The Associated Press.

---

From the Texan:

Law students' party theme not so fabulous

Michelle West

Posted: 10/13/06

Photographs from a "ghetto fabulous"-themed party prompted reaction
from the dean of the University's School of Law and a law student
organization.

The photographs, which depict first-year law students sporting Afro
wigs, large necklaces with medallions and name-tags with fake
historically black or Hispanic names while holding 40-ounce bottles
of malt liquor, were brought to the attention of the law school
dean's office by members of the Thurgood Marshall Legal Society.

Members of the society, which serves as the University's chapter of
the National Black Law Students Association, viewed the party images
on the Web site of a student who had attended the party, said
president Sophia Lecky.

"I would definitely say that the party was thoughtless and just
inappropriate," Lecky said. "They were kind of irresponsible for the
feeling of others."

Law School Dean Lawrence Sager, along with Vice President for
Diversity Gregory Vincent, met with about 18 students who attended
the party. Sager told The Associated Press he didn't believe the
students were malicious or racially motivated and no disciplinary
action would be taken.

Sager did, however, send an e-mail to the student body of the law
school reprimanding the actions of those involved.

"No firm or agency at this point in our history would knowingly hire
a candidate whose conduct was racially insensitive," Sager said in
the Oct. 6 e-mail. "It is genuinely foolhardy to engage in conduct
(and even more foolhardy to proudly disseminate proof that you have
done so) that could jeopardize your ability to practice law."

Members of the student law organization posted a photograph of
another similarly themed party in the atrium of the law school
Wednesday afternoon. The photo was of a previous UT student party.
Next to the photo, the legal society posted a letter expressing its
disappointment concerning the actions.

"We wanted to explain why certain groups of people may be offended
by images that were personified in the party," Lecky said of the
display.

Lecky said she does not think the incident was indicative of the law
school environment overall, nor does she think the students involved
had a negative racial motivation.

"I would not say that racist behavior is common at the law school;
we're not of that opinion at all," Lecky said. "Overall, I'm very
proud of TMLS, of the actions of the law school administration and
feedback for the students. We're satisfied with the end result of
this. I think that we're all a better law school community because of
it."

Additional reporting by The Associated Press.

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