12-15-2016, 07:47 AM
(12-14-2016, 04:47 PM)martyup link Wrote:I said this in another post, but I feel it should be repeated here. I believe that this administration has decided that the LSJUMB is too offensive for today's society. The tradition of poking fun at opponents' fans, traditions, and communities does not align with the current move on college campuses to ban anything that might offend anyone. IMO, the administration is using alcohol and other incidents to reach their goal of culling this "offensive" organization from our school.
I have thought about this a bit, and I think that is probably not quite what most concerns the people making these decisions.
There are many, including many fans and posters here and on other boards, that do not like the overall style of the LSJUMB and their almost miraculous ability to offend people. I am sure there are many people in Stanford's administration who would like for all that to go away. However, I think they are also resigned to this aspect. For example, my memory of the Rose Bowl aftermath is that the administration issued a pretty bland response that amounted to something like, "we regret that some Iowans were offended by misunderstanding the show" and then left it at that.
Rather, I think there is a sincere feeling that the band is violating tenets of Title IX. And maybe they are, I am not there so I cannot know. However, it does appear that the officials in this case are falling into two traps on the issue. The first is confusing which word in the phrase "sexual assault" is the real problem. That was eloquently addressed by the female band alums in their letter to the Daily - I won't say more. The other is buying into the rather common argument by those accused of sexual assault, most recently by Brock Turner, that the alcohol made them do it; that they themselves were just victims of a "campus alcohol culture". There are problems with binge drinking and alcoholism on campuses (and generally among 18-22 year olds) but people like Mr. Turner were not in trouble because they got drunk.


