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HOUGHTON – Michigan Technological University student satire publication The Daily Bull has been placed on probation by the university after publishing a tongue-in-cheek story about sexual harassment and assault.
The Nov. 4 story, “Sexually Harassed Man Pretty Okay with Situation,” describes an evening in the life of a male student in which he is repeatedly groped and harassed by female students. It is accompanied by a list of “Signs that she wants the D,” with bullet-pointed items including “she only screams a little” and “she’s underage and you’re 21.”
According to Tech Vice President for Student Affairs Les Cook, the university’s office of academic and community conduct placed the Bull on probation for two years. He said Tech’s undergraduate student government, which funds the Bull as a student organization, also voted to withdraw some funding, and withhold more until Bull staff members had attended Title IX training on sexual discrimination.
Rico Bastian, author of the article and the Daily Bull’s editor-in-chief, said the conduct office’s sanctions also required cultural sensitivity training, but that the same training would likely satisfy both group’s sanctions. He said the Bull also agreed to some changes in its editorial policies, primarily to guarantee that at least one staff member besides the writer would review every story before publication.
The Bull has continued its regular publication schedule throughout the controversy, and Bastian said he will continue writing and editing.
Despite the satirical nature of the stories and the publication, Cook said the university took disciplinary action because of statements that “could be construed as advocating sexual violence.”
“We know that it’s a satire piece, (but) they obviously overstepped the line on this one,” said Cook. “Because there are people out there that do take it literally.”
In an email to the university community in November, Cook said the university had a responsibility to “guide and direct what become our shared values,” and that some he’d heard from saw the Bull’s statements as “dangerous.”
On Thursday, he said the university was also legally required by federal Title IX statutes to take action. Title IX, best known for requiring equality for female athletic programs, actually prohibits any sort of sexual discrimination in university activities, he said – even speech or published speech that would otherwise be protected under the first amendment of the U.S. Constitution.
“(The Constitution) doesn’t supersede it,” he said. “Title IX is a federal compliance policy. Those policies supersede anything else.”
The story’s satirical nature, and that most people would realize its intent was not to literally advocate violence or illegality, doesn’t matter if some people take the statements seriously, he said.
Bastian said the Daily Bull did not dispute the university’s conduct charges or the student government’s sanctions, but that there was n0 intent to hurt anyone or to advocate bad behavior.
“I really regret it was taken that way,” he said.
The Bull quickly published a retraction and apology after Cook’s November email, and Bastian said it wasn’t just an attempt to avoid punishment.
Satire, by its nature, is intended to poke fun at society’s shortcomings, he said, and it’s nothing new for him to offend a few people. But he started having second thoughts about the article when he got comments from people he felt were genuinely hurt.
“As comedy writer, I don’t want anybody to be hurt,” he said. “It’s OK if they’re angry, but I don’t want to hurt anybody.”
The Bull will be more thoughtful in the future, he said, but there are no plans to avoid sensitive issues entirely.
“I don’t want my staff to shy away from any issue,” he said. “Anything can be taken on, but has to be taken on in a good fashion.”