Ole Miss Football Players Interrupt Campus Production of THE LARAMIE PROJECT with 'Borderline Hate Speech'

It's not Broadway but it's something that people should hear about. I find this absolutely disgusting.

https://www.broadwayworld.com/article/Ole-Miss-Football-Players-Interrupt-Campus-Production-of-THE-LARAMIE-PROJECT-with-Borderline-Hate-Speech-20131003

This open letter to the Students and Faculty is promising. Hopefully, some good will come out of this incident. It's awful that the actors had to endure such a horrific display of ignorance and bigotry.

"While we work to determine with certainty who disrupted the Laramie Project play, we want everyone within our university community and beyond to know that we strongly condemn the behavior exhibited Tuesday night. As a member of the Ole Miss family, each of us has a responsibility to be accountable for our actions, and these individuals will be held accountable. Our investigation will determine the degree to which any and all students were involved.

As a first step to addressing behavior at the performance Tuesday night, we will meet today with the freshman student-athletes (from various sports) who attended the play and have a dialogue about what happened, about our university-wide commitment to inclusivity and civility, and about the important role they play in representing the university. It is clear that some students badly misrepresented the culture of this university. From there, we will work with Student Affairs and the Bias Incident Response Team to determine the facts and appropriate next steps.

Incidents like this remind all educators that our job is to prepare our students to be leaders in life during their years on campus and after they graduate from Ole Miss. This behavior by some students reflects poorly on all of us, and it reinforces our commitment to teaching inclusivity and civility to young people who still have much to learn. We will be engaging our student-athletes with leaders on the subject of individuality and tolerance, so we can further enforce life lessons and develop them to their fullest potential.

On behalf of our 22,000 students, our faculty, and our staff, we apologize.

Dan Jones

Chancellor, University of Mississippi

Ross Bjork

Director of Athletics, University of Mississippi"



Open Letter to UM Students and Faculty

Updated On: 10/4/13 at 11:12 AM

I hope some gay group interrupts this weekend's football game with a gay kiss-in.

It's a damned if they do...damned if they don't situation. At least the administration acknowledged that there was wrong doing. I think it would be even more of an outrage if the school had said absolutely nothing. I don't think we know that names weren't taken. We will just have to wait and see what happens.

I still have to believe that there is an opportunity for some good to come out of this even if it is just an open dialogue about what is acceptable behavior and treatment of another human being (Ironic considering the subject matter of the play being performed). Maybe I'm just a cockeyed optimist but the idea that there wouldn't be is heartbreaking. I went to such a school in a neighboring state so I know the mentality concerning the "religion" of athletics and that football is king. The football team alone generates the majority of the revenue for the entire university and nothing will be done that will jeopardize the team's ability to function. I know that any punishment that is handed down from this will seem like a slap on the wrist. These football players were freshman so a suspension from being able to play would make very little difference as only a handful of freshman ever actually get to play more than once or twice in a season if at all.

Updated On: 10/7/13 at 01:10 PM

An SEC team (or any FBS team for that matter) would *never* self impose punishments for an incident unrelated to the program, department, or the NCAA. There is far too much money in their athletics to ever do that. Do not even think for a second that some wrong will be righted. It's not going to happen, and that is the saddest part of all.

And if you do, videotape it and post it on Xtube.

Liza, FBS teams self-impose punishment all the time in the hopes that doing so promptly will head off worse sanctions from the NCAA. I'm not saying they do so out of nobility, but it is incorrect to claim they never sanction themselves.

***

As for the Mississippi incident, I say we chalk it up as a win! Okay, so a play was temporarily interrupted. AND IT MADE NATIONAL NEWS plus the AD and Chancellor apologized. Would any of those responses followed in the 1990s? I doubt it.

if you read Brecht, Artaud or most of the French Symbolists, they liked nothing better than an uproar in the audience! It meant they were actually upsetting the composure of the bourgeoisie. Alfred Jarry's reputation was made by the supposed "riot" that broke out during the premier of his UBU ROI.

Let's count our victories where we find them.

"Liza, FBS teams self-impose punishment all the time in the hopes that doing so promptly will head off worse sanctions from the NCAA. I'm not saying they do so out of nobility, but it is incorrect to claim they never sanction themselves. "

You clearly did not understand my post. An FBS team will not sacrifice their program over an incident like this. There is far too much money and prestige on the line for them. That is my point.

Updated On: 10/4/13 at 09:29 PM

You clearly did not understand my post. An FBS team will not sacrifice their program over an incident like this. There is far too much money and prestige on the line for them. That is my point.

Headband, I not only understood, I agree. But the key words are "sacrifice their program". Programs bench players all the time for violating "team rules" or for behavior that reflects badly on the team; this is not to say they willingly "sacrifice" their entire program.

Will Ole Miss do so in this case? I won't hold my breath.

Updated On: 10/5/13 at 03:45 PM

To add on more depressing info to support Tom's point, the link below shows the top-paid public employee by state.

The depressing summary:
In 39 states, it is a football or basketball coach.
In 5 states, it is a college president.
In 5 states, it is a medical school employee (dean, dept. head, or surgeon).
In 1 state, it is a law school dean.

http://deadspin.com/infographic-is-your-states-highest-paid-employee-a-co-489635228