42 Comments
Whoa, whoa, whoa, wait a minute there, Dianne. Did you seriously just cancel the ice hockey team‘s fall season, and yank half their funding, and put them on probation for two years, over an insensitive poster?
The Club Sports governing board, a group of students and administrators that apparently decides these kind of things, isn’t returning e-mails. The Club Sports office itself punted to the Athletics Communications guy, whom Bwog couldn’t reach for comment. In any case, while Bwog isn’t enamored of the hockey team’s boorish word choice, we can’t help but worry that the cause of cultural sensitivity is more hurt than helped by Murphy’s firepower. Rugby, take heed! The PC police are on alert!
Full press release after the jump.
PRESS RELEASE
The full disciplinary action, determined after consultation with Columbia College administrators and the Club Sports Governing Board, comprised of student members of the Columbia Club Sports Program and Departmental Club Sports administrators (Brian Jines, Dr. Kenneth Torrey), is as follows:
1) The Columbia University Men’s Ice Hockey Club members in leadership positions are asked to furnish a written public apology to the Columbia University community, recognizing the offensive nature of the recruitment poster. The Club must also acknowledge that it did not seek approval from Club Sports administrators before printing and posting the recruitment flyer.
2) The Columbia University Men’s Ice Hockey Club is prohibited from participating in the Columbia Club Sports Program during Fall Semester 2006, effective immediately. The Men’s Ice Hockey Club will not be recognized as an active program of the Columbia University Department of Intercollegiate Athletics and Physical Education until January 16, 2007. As such, the Columbia Men’s Ice Hockey Club will not receive half of its funding for Fiscal Year 2007 from either the Department or the Student Council. The Club will not have the use of Department-owned vans for transportation, and may not participate in organized practices and competition.
3) The Columbia University Men’s Ice Hockey Club is hereby placed on two (2) years probation. Any further violations of Columbia Club Sports policies and regulations over the next two academic years may result in the suspension and/or elimination of the Columbia University Men’s Ice Hockey Club from the Club Sports Program.
“We recognize that free expression is a vital component of University life,” says Dr. Murphy. “This disciplinary action is not related to free speech, but rather the abdication of leadership responsibilities by senior members of the Club, and not working within established Club Sports policies and procedures.”
No further statement from Dr. Murphy is expected at this time.
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42 Comments
@Cool Your Jets Todd Fairbanks is my hero!!!
@Cool Your Jets Todd Fairbanks is my hero!!!
@This This is what happens when you let SHOCC and the Socialists have their run of the campus! We need a real leader, we the rightful owners of this country, need to TAKE IT BACK from these cretins! Please visit the upcoming C4 meeting for more info on this.
@Anonymous Diane Murphy. BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
@The "man" goalie Hey, I was the goalie in the 90s… are you calling me a pussy? I’m hurt by your accusations. You are hereby suspended.
@An Alumnus I captained the hockey team in the early 90’s. We sucked, but we had fun. Two players, including our starting goalie for two years, were women, and no, they would not have been upset by this poster. Yes, I think it was kind of childish to use “pussy” on the poster, but then again, you’re still kids at this point in time. Dr. Murphy’s sole responsibility should be to ensure that sports at Columbia University, intramural or otherwise, supplement the college experience: that is, shaping 18-year-old kids into 22-year-old adults. The punishment is excessively harsh, and the reasoning in the press release is, in my opinion, even more childish than the offensive act itself. Dr. Murphy fails to see that students, not full-time employees, run these teams. Does a failure of judgment merit the eventual destruction of the program? Would she suspend the football team if a poster was placed on campus referring to the Princeton Tigers as “pussies”?
Based upon my past experience and a general knowledge of the current league situation, I truly believe that this suspension will more likely cause the collapse of the team than it will allow it to continue on its current path. This punishment was delivered unjudiciously, and it most certainly does not fix the problem. I believe some measures should be taken to ensure that students think twice about their actions, but if this decision stands, I will cease any future association I have with Columbia University, without hesitation.
@A Concerned Fan hey #36,
copy what you just wrote into a letter to the columbia college alumni association, the athletics department, and president bollinger. they’ve been known to actually listen when the check-writers get angry.
@it is a pun but just not clearly explained. in essence: join the columbia lions hockey team. don’t be a pussy. (pussy is dimunative lion and also a man of frail health and diminuitive stature.) hence the pun is the word pussy.
@extreme Cunt maybe, but pussy? As Todd Fairbanks so eloquently says: “what started off as a harmless pun has been blown way out of proportion”. Well, it’s not a pun, but still, the punishment seems quite harsh.
@ugh but if she DIDN’T respond this way SHOCC and the like would be up in arms about how columbia doesn’t take this kind of stuff seriously…
@diane murphy is such a pussy
@PCness is ruining life in general, especially at columbia. I wish zeus were able to swoop down and remove every non-WASP male’s whiny victimhood license already.
@oops I meant every non-straight “heteronormal”, patriarchical, orientalist, nationalist bourgeois WASP male…
@Yo MAMA's Ass!!! You liberal PC folks are such hypocrites. First you twist generally harmless expressions into offenisve material to sout your agenda, thereby casuing such nonsensical reactionary punishments such as the cancelling of half of the hockey season. Then you back track saying the administration’s crack down is too severe as the “crime” was not on par with the prejudiced swastika painting baseball players. Then you yourself use vitrolic, discriminatory, and offensive statements in attacking White Anglo-Saxon Protestants (WASPs). Like Ms Murphy, I do believe once you all leave safety bubble of academia you will find a “real world” out there that will be quickly bring you toyour knees. Yes the “Don’t be a pussy” comment was crude and vulgar, but these are hockey players, not aristocrats!! If the administration is so concerned about the direction of club sports, why don’t they just put the coaches on payroll and make them responsible for the conduct of the team instead of putting the pressure soley on the backs of 18 and 20 y.o.’s who have proven again tey are doomed to eventually fail as proven not just in hockey but almost all other club sports. It is obvious the administration is attacking of hockey is ECONOMICALLY MOTIVATED, as the sport is I believe the second most expensive club sport on campus, and not due to the “pussy” comment, for as others have written, almost every other club/team on campus has similar skeletons in thier collective closets.
@BC Girl I don’t think it’s mysogynistic at all. Hell, I’ve called someone a pussy (another girl) within the past couple of days, and no one freaked out. And to level the playing field, if the poster had been like “don’t be a dick”, would there be all this fuss?? I don’t think so. It really isn’t a big deal and people are being overly sensitive. And Diane Murphy is waaayy out of line.
@Go Diane I completely support this action. The culture of mysogyny is rightfully being challenged here. It isn’t about the use of a word, it’s about the whole paradigm of male athletes and the girls-gone-wild attitude of their world-view. End the disrespect and exploitation. (Sadly, this won’t, but it’s a nice gesture)
@DHI Is your argument essentially that we shouldn’t have sports teams?
Because I can understand that if you think we shouldn’t have sports teams you would support this action.
@also Girls Gone Wild is SOFTCORE porn, it is not as exploitative and disrespectful as some porn.
@actually... the letter calls for action to be taken against the hockey team in the future to prevent this sort of stuff for happening. so…i guess that is what Diane Murphy thought the presidents were talking about. Either way, their letter was ridiculous.
And Diane Murphy should absolutely be fired.
@Hey, if you read the letter from the Presidents, it calls for Athletics to distribute their flyering policy and be like “don’t do this shit again.” Nowhere does it call for the punishment of the team… it actually doesn’t even involve the team at all…
Damn.
@Hey, remember those guys at Duke who got suspended for ALLEGEDLY GANG-RAPING SOMEONE???? Where does this match up to that?
@Hey, remember those guys at Duke who got suspended for ALLEGEDLY GANG-RAPING SOMEONE???? Where does this match up to that?
@IAWTP I wonder. Are they going to have some sort of ceremony at Lerner when they remove the CU Hockey banner? Will they do it quietly? Will it be burned? Will it come back larger and brighter than ever in the spring? Bwog!
@well this is a load of steaming feces
@Free Speech? I’m confused. I thought Bollinger was a champion of free speech. At least that’s when he spent an entire semester teaching me. Remember that case, I think it was Cohen v. California, sir, where you taught us that it was said that individuals could merely avert their eyes to this type of speech. And then, sir, I believe it was in FCC v. Pacifica where you taught us that the words themselves could not be defined, and that words contain dual meanings. Sir, now I do not know what to believe.
@The hypocrisy of this school amazes me, well I should restate that, i should say that it never ceases to amaze me. What is even more apalling than Murphy penalizing the team is the fact that the four “presidents” of the classes wrote a letter calling for this sanction. I would imagine that they would all have more important things to be concerned with other than the use of a word that isnt even considered offensive enough to be deleted from CBS. What is even more shocking is that only two of them took the time to write a letter opposing the proposed visit of the insane tyrant who leads Iran, and who is an avowed enemy of the United States.
I can only assume that these two (or four) would consider the hockey team more of a threat to the values of columbia, and American than a madman.
It only shows how demented the policies of the schools adminstration and its “progressive” student leadership are.
@Erf Read the Spec article. Okin of ESC expresses shock at the harshness of the punishment.
@yea mostly just the slanderous rants accusing M. Dianne of crazy and illegal acts. best to keep the discuss civil but rightfully angry.
@bwog just deleted a bunch of posts
@Sparky So sounds like the “Mighty Ducks” of Morningside are here.
Quack! Quack! Quack!
Where’s Gordon Bombay when you need him?
@Anonymous WHOA WHOA WHOA. You mean to tell me that Matt Brown and Stephen Searles, who spray-painted SWASTIKAS in Ruggles, got off with a slap on the wrist and are still students at Columbia, but the hockey team gets busted over the word “pussy?”
I swear this school puzzles me more and more each day.
@Fire Her She has no respect for tradition or school spirit. Given that she’s done nothing to change this culture of losing, she really shouldn’t ruin Columbia Athletics’ one real draw: the sense of fun and community it gives to alumni and participants. Somehow I don’t see these Hockey players or their alums cutting CU Athletics any checks anytime soon.
Fire Dr. Murphy.
@this is patently absurd. she should be fired.
@join the facebook group
http://columbia.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2211051753
@the dude basically the poster called non-hockey players pussies, but in a fun-loving way. Who gives a shit what hockey players call us, but really, this bitch is insane. M. Diane Murphy has been like this to alumni which is far worse. She went to a private party before one of the MSG CU basketball games last year and told the 50 or so alumni last year, of whom about 10 were smoking cigars, how upset she was that they were smoking at a University sponsered event. For some reason, yelling at middle aged alumni that smoking is bad pisses them off, so right after this, the guys with cigars passed the rest around and most of the crowd was smoking to spite her. Honestly, she’s pissing off the alumni too.
@rugby player whats funny is we decided against similiar slogans on our posters and were told to remove ‘fuck’ and replaced it with ruck on our posters.
This is still bullshit.
@Anonymous What was the poster?
@fuck you! Dear Diane: you are a bitch! How’s that for political correctness?
@Stupid I have nothing to do with the hockey team and before this incident would have had a 50-50 chance of guessing correctly whether or not we even have a hockey team. But really, this is very high school of Dr. Murphy. Is this punishment commensurate with the offense of not seeking approval before distributing the posters? Clearly not. So they’re being punished — quite harshly — for writing “pussy?” That’s really stupid.
@Anonymous What was the poster?
@This is Bullshit