Act Against Hate at Cal State University San Marcos
In the face of a new hate tabloid on the Cal State San Marcos campus (CSUSM), the university administration has remained silent — since January 2011. It’s time for the administration to call out the hate in The Koala. An anonymous, for-profit tabloid, The Koala promotes violence against women and girls, rape, pedophilia, homophobia, and bias against people of color and those with disabilities and illness. Like other hate publications, The Koala pretends to be humor, while it creates a hostile educational and work environment at CSUSM — unchallenged by the administration.
Read more about The Koala here: www.CallOutTheKoala.com.
Students and faculty who have spoken out against the content in The Koala have been threatened and harassed. Student leaders have been personally attacked in The Koala, their photos incorporated into pornographic scenes, and victims of racist violence were refered to as potatoes, plants and produce (see CSUSM Koala, September 2011 issue). It’s time for the administration to take action, to let the CSUSM students, faculty, staff, alumni, donors and surrounding communities know that the administration will no longer be a passive accomplice to hate.
Please sign our petition and join students, faculty, staff, and members of the California Faculty Association and surrounding communities in demanding that CSUSM President Karen Haynes and the Cal State University Board of Trustees:
1. Speak out against The Koala. Name the tabloid’s content as hateful and prejudicial, as promoting violence against women and girls and other minorities, and as creating a hostile campus environment that affects all students, staff and faculty.
2. Limit student, faculty and staff’s unwanted exposure to The Koala and the tabloid’s aggressive hand distribution by enforcing passive distribution via vendor boxes, just like the campus newspaper. The vendor boxes will be supplied by The Koala and installed in University-approved locations at The Koala’s expense.
3. Create a safe means for students, staff and faculty to share and document how The Koala has negatively impacted their education and work experience. Should another such publication or organization attempt to spread hate and intimidation on campus, the documentation will serve as testament to the hostile educational and working environment created by such publications.
4. Require that, in order to be distributed at CSUSM, each Koala issue must accurately identify the tabloid’s owner, publisher, editors, writers, graphic artists, business address and contact information, as the campus newspaper does and as any legitimate publication does.
We are not suggesting The Koala’s First Amendment rights be hindered in any way. Rather, we are asking the CSUSM and Cal State University administrations to honor their responsibility to protect students, faculty and staff from the hostile educational and working environment that The Koala has created. It’s time to call out The Koala.
W T F ! 