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CMU joined the trending Broncos and Seahawks on Super Bowl Sunday after a student allegedly posted a racist and derogatory tweet.
After Richard Sherman’s ankle injury early in the fourth quarter, a tweet appeared on the student in question’s feed at 6:28 p.m., “Sherman injured? Good you f****ing n*****. #seahawkssuckc****.”
Nearly an hour after the initial tweet, users began replying. At 8:16 p.m., a reply was sent tagging CMU, “Dear @ColoradoMesaU, you might be interested in what your student thinks of black athletes.”
Within the hour, CMU became aware of the incident and issued a response.
“Initially we thought that it was just an internal twitter argument, and I wasn’t sure why we were getting drawn into it,” said Mike Mansheim, Director of Marketing and Student Recruitment for CMU. “The comment was gisgusting, for lack of a better word. It was clear that it was getting traction, and it could be damaging to the school’s brand.”
The three-part response on the part of CMU was posted at 8:56 p.m. reiterating the university’s diversity statement and assuring the incident would be reported to the Student Conduct Officer.
“The language used by the individual in question is not reflective of Colorado Mesa’s values as a university,” CMU’s final tweet on the matter said.
Around 9 p.m., the tweet was removed and the student’s account was shut down, though whether the student or Twitter was responsible is not conclusive. Replies continued to appear online with screenshots of the tweet attached.
Senior Lou Mbala, President of CMU’s Black Student Alliance, was made aware of the situation early Monday in an email distributed by the Cultural Diversity Board Advisor Danny Sandoval.
“We want to feel welcome, and that’s what we try to give back to the community” Mbala said. “We just hope that things like this aren’t repeated.”
Mbala maintained that discriminatory acts like the tweet sent on Super Bowl Sunday don’t just affect African American students.
“I feel like whenever there’s an issue like this on campus, it affects the whole campus,” Mbala said. “I really think the administration should stand up as quickly as possible against that and punish anyone that needs to be punished.”
Director of Media Relations Dana Nunn discussed the difficulty in making judgment calls in regard to personal social media accounts that don’t involve campus activities or other students.
“Obviously part of what happens [on Twitter] is the free exchange of ideas and opinions, and you absolutely don’t want to get in the way of that,” Nunn said, “but you also need to protect the institutional reputation to a certain extent.”
Both Nunn and Mansheim hope the situation has been resolved and that no further action will be necessary on the part of the university. Nunn was particuarly impressed with other student’s reactions in reaffriming the value of diversity on campus.
“I think it was gratifying to see how many people jumped out to say that’s not the way it is at CMU and that doesn’t reflect our values,” Nunn said.
Mansheim assured that the incident had been reported to Student Services, but beyond that, there wasn’t much more his office could do.
“Even though there are those who are rightfully outraged by this, if anything comes of it, we as an institution can’t comment anyhow,” Mansheim said. “Hopefully it’s a teachable moment for a lot of folks.”
Vice President of Student Services John Marshall became aware of the situation early Monday morning, and an investigation was launched prior to 8:30 a.m.
“Clearly, we take misconduct seriously,” Marshall said.
Depending on the results of the investigation, an appeal processes may be established, and the student will be afforded due process until the matter can be resolved in a way that reflects the university’s Student Code of Conduct.
“I would just encourage folks to be thoughtful about what they send out into cyber-land because it doesn’t go away,” Nunn said. “It really is written in ink, so be thoughtful.”
cferganc@mavs.coloradomesa.edu
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