"N***a, please"

So how ‘bout them Cavs? No, I don’t mean their loss to Western Michigan this Saturday. I’m talking about some much bigger players, specifically Jesus, Mary and Joseph.

Last week a firestorm arose after The University of Virginia’s independent student publication, The Cavalier Daily, ran two controversial cartoons that sparked heated debate and caused an onslaught of angry responses. Sounds familiar to the situation recently faced by the University of Florida’s independent student paper, The Alligator, though the issue was handled much differently.

When the Alligator ran a racially insensitive cartoon, UF administrators and student leaders became involved directly with the issue in what one editorial called “sweaty, disingenuous protest,” apologizing on behalf of a publication for which the University provides no direct funding or support. Mr. Machen makes the point best himself: “We were disgusted by the image and discouraged that such an insensitive cartoon could be published in a newspaper that, while independent from the university, is written and edited by UF students.” (The bold and italics are my own and not Mr. Machen's )

Compare this reaction to that of University of Virginia officials, who bite their tongue to the tune of 1st Amendment and “student writers will be student writers.”

FoxNews.com http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,214059,00.html
College Newspaper in Virginia Removes Jesus Cartoons at Artist's Request
Friday, September 15, 2006
Associated Press

RICHMOND, Virginia — A University of Virginia student newspaper on Friday removed from its Web site cartoons featuring Jesus Christ that prompted a barrage of e-mails to the paper and school from people who thought the comics were blasphemous.
The Charlottesville, Virginia, university and The Cavalier Daily received about 2,500 messages about the comics, many of them form-letter e-mails that were overwhelmingly from people outside the school community.
The strips were removed at the request of the artist, U.Va. student Grant Woolard.
"The sole intent of my comic strip is to present situations that provoke thought and amusement," Woolard said in a statement on the newspaper's Web site. "As this comic did not achieve that goal, I have requested that it be taken down from the Cavalier Daily website. I apologize for the offense that this comic has produced."
The Jesus cartoons ran in The Cavalier Daily's Aug. 23 and 24 editions and featured "Christ on a Cartesian Coordinate Plane," with the figure of Jesus crucified on X and Y axes of a mathematical graph. Another, "A Nativity Ob-scene," showed Joseph and the Virgin Mary talking about Mary's rash, with her saying, "I swear, it was Immaculately Transmitted!"

The controversy began last week when the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights demanded an apology from The Cavalier Daily. The paper declined, saying that the comics did not violate any newspaper policy.
U.Va. was then bombarded by e-mails and phone calls, but spokeswoman Carol Wood said that the university has no editorial control over the newspaper, which receives no school funding, and must uphold freedoms of speech, expression and the press.
After discussing the matter further Thursday, The Cavalier Daily changed its position.
"We are regretful that many took offense to them," the editors said in a statement Friday on the paper's Web site. "Offense was not our intent — neither the intent of the artist, nor the intent of the newspaper, which seeks to provide contributors an open forum to present their ideas."
Catholic League President Bill Donohue said that he was satisfied with the removal of the cartoons and the paper's apology.
"Obviously, I would have liked it to be a little more complete," Donohue said Friday in a phone interview. "They're young, they're college kids. The message has been delivered and we don't expect to revisit this again."
Wood said that dealing with the controversy is part of the student editors' learning experience.
"We know that mistakes will be made and the purpose of a higher education and learning community is to learn from mistakes and take accountability for your actions," she said. "Better when you're 18 to 21 than 35 in a job."

1. To what extent should a non-profit organization be held responsible/liable for a separate entity that conducts its business on their property and bears their unstated stamp of approval?
   
   
2. Is this a different circumstance than the one faced by The Alligator? Does the nature of the cartoons (racially insensitive v.s. religiously insensitive) place a different burden of reaction on the associated institution?
   
   The real question is, how can I tie this all to this week’s readings? Well, the issue of government-nonprofit relations fits (if you push hard enough).
3. Under "Finance and Endowment", the UVA website reveals that in the 2005 and 2006 academic year, state appropriations accounted for 13.4% of all revenues; the same chart notes that between 1989 and 1990, state appropriations accounted for a walloping 33.2% of revenues.
   Does this decrease in state funding have an impact on just how accountable the University must be to their state sugar-daddies? While none of the articles I’ve read specifically mention any statements or push for action from conservative state government officials, I’ve got to think they have an interest in keeping the jewel of Virginia untarnished by religious scandal. In one religious publication, The University of Virginia has been slammed as “anti-Christian,” despite the fact that the paper is independent from the university.
   While in this case, the university washed their hands of involvement with the issue, do you think that the university’s status as a public nonprofit state-run institution could affect their reaction? For example, would you expect state officials to say, "Tax payers prefer their Mary herpes-free, so do what it takes to make those kids shut up." Does some government funding allow for some government pull?
   

* I hope the blog title was not offensive. It was a parody of a parody and meant to spark discussion. If you want to read more about last year’s Alligator scandal, their website has a vast archive of the many letters to the editor and opinion articles surrounding this issue.