The morning of March 17, I had the luxury of being an innocent bystander when four young men bedecked with the skimpiest amount of green and shameless energy evoked awkward smiles and shocked stares from the few stragglers on the Brickyard.
The incident sparked some controversy, and soon after, I did not really think about it much. Little did I know that they would spark controversy again, let alone bring any type of stress into my world.
I have always been one of the first to stand up and protest a decision on behalf of an administrator that I found unjust and unfair. This time around, I come from a different perspective. I am not a student senator this time, but a student assistant for New Student Orientation.
In the case of the fliers that were printed by Student Media to be placed in the Information Folders for New Student Orientation, I firmly support the Provost’s decision to pull the fliers for having the image of the “Shamrock Streakers.” I do not think this is a matter of ethics, or a moral crusade.
About 5,500 students are making their way to becoming a part of our campus. These students, through New Student Orientation, will be provided with the necessary information they need to thrive at N.C. State. I feel as though the administration has the right to determine what information they feel represents it (including images), and it has the right to select what parts of campus life it would like to represent.
The question of censorship would come in if it were about the administration telling Technician that it could not print the image of the “Shamrock Streakers.” It is completely the administration’s call on what is to go into the information folders. However, I do not feel this is a case of censorship because it is not the right of Student Media to put whatever they would like in the information folder, it is a privilege to be able to be a part of the information provided directly into the hands of students.
By the time that the fliers come around to us to stuff the folders, we assume that they have been approved by the respective departments. As members of the student staff at NSO, we are trained not only to ask questions, but also to have the right information to answer any questions that may arise. The content of the flyer was questionable and we knew that a parent or even a student would most likely ask a question about the image.
I do not know what I find more stressful. The fact that a campus department cannot survive without trying to push boundaries or the fact that the student staff has to do a whole lot more extra work. While the members of Student Media seem to boulder on a moral crusade, we have another tedious task to worry about.
If we cannot trust departments to be mature and to put content that is not questionable in the folders, that just creates more work to do. The question could not be asked until the fliers were delivered. It is not our fault that the fliers weren’t “clean,” and it was completely our right to question them and to send them to our supervisors. We knew who would end up cleaning up the mess, but sometimes, it is not about the mess that is created but rather about preventing the even larger mess that would have been created by the fliers being distributed.
I am disappointed with Technician‘s coverage of the incident. It was both one-sided and did not accurately depict the event. The University distributes the information that they feel is necessary for students to have. However “average student life” is defined by the “average student,” that does not mean there is a moral need to push that on every student. I respect the University’s decision for the sheer fact that it is their right to select what information is to be given to incoming students.
If that information does not include the jolly green streakers, then that is fine by me.
