In the recent events surrounding a St. Patrick Day’s party where DePaul students were photographed not wearing masks or adhering to Covid-19 prevention protocols, The DePaulia student newspaper published an article holding the individuals at the party to account. In this article, the newspaper made the choice to name specific students due to their leadership roles in the DePaul Greek life community. Since this article was published, the discourse surrounding this article and the events it details have quickly escalated, where multiple individuals, including the students who were named and the DePaul journalists, are facing online harassment and intimidation.
In our polarized cultural climate, there are some disagreements that have gray areas and some that simply do not. The right and need for journalists to report threats and violations to public safety is without question. The choice of The DePaulia journalists to specifically name certain individuals at the party to be held to account poses questions and necessary debate. Such debates, especially when individualized and when directly tethered (as the article does) to broader discussions of systemic racism, power, public health and access will elicit strong emotions, anger, and intense passion.
Anger in the face of injustice is sometimes necessary. Yet, when anger feeds on and reignites systems of hate and intimidation to wield its power, this is an unambiguous line. The repeated personal attacks including death threats against the students named in the article is
not a gray area. The repeated online misgendering and racist attacks of The DePaulia reporter who wrote the story is
not a gray area. This is peddling in hate, and it is—without question—against the values of our college and our institution.
We condemn any kind of racist/hateful language, or statements that condone violence towards a person or group based on their identity. We as a college stand with and for difficult discussions and the need for heated disagreements in the work towards justice, and we stand with and for the integrity and humanity of every person.
Updated on March 18, 2021 to reflect that The DePaulia revised their article to name both men and women (not solely sorority members) in their coverage after receiving confirmation of additional individuals involved in the event.