Proclamation To Address Student Concerns About The Medium News Letter: Preamble: Presented on this day, November the nineteenth, in the year two thousand and three, as members of the Rutgers University community who are concerned and dissatisfied with the subject material that has been printed in the magazine The Medium, a student funded organization, we collectively agree that the following measures need to be met and addressed with as much cooperation as possible to facilitate in the propagation of unity amongst Rutgers University students, faculty, and staff. Rutgers University’s mission statement, as defined through the following excerpt, is required to be applied to every Rutgers University organization. All Rutgers University organizations are asked to abide by the mission statement of the university in order to foster a community that is cohesive and indivisible:” Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey is committed to the ideals of excellence in fostering an enriching learning community of students, faculty and staff from a broad spectrum of nations, cultures, and historical perspectives. Diversity is an integral component of human experience, and encompasses but is not limited to issues of race, ethnicity, culture, social class, national origin, gender, age, religious beliefs, sexual orientation mental ability, and physical ability. Our collective goal is to create an institutional consciousness of diversity reinforced with equity and excellence through our policies, practices, and programs of inclusion, non-discrimination, and pluralism for all members of the University Community.” WHERE AS: The mission of the university is stated above, The Medium must question its current relevance to the university’s mission.
While membership is not neglected on the basis of .”.. race, sex, handicap, age, sexual orientation, or political and religious affiliation (Medium Constitution) “, the publication itself does not agree with the university’s mission, nor does it provide an outlet for diversity and respect of other cultures, races, and sexual orientations. WHERE AS: The Medium has published and continues to publish ‘hate speech’, the environment in which said magazine has and is creating one of racial hostility. Community lines are drawn due to racial, religious, gender, and sexual orientation differences, causing the Rutgers University community to be disjointed and without proper unanimity and accord. WHERE AS: The Medium has fostered an atmosphere of antagonism, the safety of students, regardless of color, creed, gender, and sexual orientation are in danger. Although opinions are without credit to those they might endanger, the physical sight of such opinions places the Rutgers community in a state of alert and fear.
The anonymity of the ‘personals’s ection of said magazine helps to cultivate the aforementioned emotions and promote inferiority based on said characteristics of the Rutgers community. WHERE AS: The following Rutgers University organizations are in concurrence about the aforementioned, Hillel House, Campus Ministries, The Catholic Center, Douglass Black Student Congress, Latino Student Council (Alpha Phi Alpha, Black Voice/Carta Latina, Central And South American Alliance, Chi Upsilon Sigma, Educational Opportunity Program Student Assistance, James Carr Society, Lambda Sigma Upsilon, Lambda Theta Alpha, Lambda Theta Phi, Lambda Upsilon Lambda, Latin American Womyn’s Organization, Latin Images, Latinos Unidos en Poder, MANNERS, Mu Upsilon Sigma, Native American Cultural Association, Rutgers Union of Cuban American Students, Rutgers Union Estudiantil Puertoriquena, Sigma Lambda Beta, Sigma Lambda Gamma, Sociedad Estudiantil Dominicana, Society of Hispanic Engineers, and Society of Hispanic American Men), Sigma Gamma Rho, Asian Student Council (DAWA -Douglass Asian Women’s Association, International Student Association, Chinese Dance Troupe, Chinese Student Organization, Chinese Student and Scholar Association, Korean Cultural Group, Korean Student Association, Organization of Nippon Students, Rutgers Association of Pilipino Students, Rutgers Cantonese Club, Taiwanese American Student Association, Taiwanese Graduate Students Association, Vietnamese Student Association, Association of Indians at Rutgers, Bangladesh Student Association, Bengali Student Association, Hindu Student Council, Indian Political and Cultural Association, Pakistani Student Association RU Sikh, Siqafat, Alpha Kappa Delta Phi, Kappa Phi Lambda, Lambda Phi Epsilon, Nu Sigma Xi, Pi Delta Psi, Conversasian), Black Student Union, EMPATHY (Emancipating Minds Through Perceivable Art and The Hip-hop Youth), Paul Robeson Club, NAACP, (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People), United Black Council, and RUA BJ (Rutgers University Association of Black Journalists) we want the following actions to be taken by, about, and for The Medium: BE IT RESOLVED: The direction of The Medium in recent years is not in accordance with the mission of Rutgers University and the originally intended purpose of its conception and birth, we want the current and future staffs of said magazine to watch the direction that said magazine is in. This would include editing and / or deleting submissions that are not protected under the first amendment of the United States of America due to their classification of ‘hate speech’ (hate speech is speech that expresses animosity on the basis of race, national origin, ethnicity, religion, gender, or sexual orientation). Said speech is protected under the first amendment, only if they do not threaten others. (i. e.
, placing Jews in ‘junkyard ovens’, being sodomized by ‘big black men’, etc. ) BE IT RESOLVED: Hate speech is not protected by the first amendment of the constitution of the United States of America, it is requested that said magazine create and enforce guidelines for the ‘personals’s ection of The Medium. These guidelines would eliminate the publication of racially threatening material towards any and every race, eliminate the publication of threatening gender- biased material towards both sexes, eliminate the publication of threatening religious-based material towards any and every creed, and eliminate the publication of threatening sexually-orientated material to all sexual orientations, as per the first amendment of the United States of America. BE IT RESOLVED: The aforementioned are not stated within the constitution of said magazine, a clause and / or amendment to this constitution in Article IV or Article XII would rectify the current situation of all parties involved. Article IV of said magazine’s constitution should hold the Editor-In-Chief responsible for the reactions thereof from the publication of said magazine. Article XII of said magazine’s constitution should directly address the issues of free speech and hate speech, the difference between the two, and state the obligation to follow all laws of the United States of America that adhere to the issues of free and hate speech..