Town hall meeting addresses cartoon

A crowd of nearly 100 students, faculty and Indiana Daily Student staff members discussed the connotations of a controversial political cartoon in the IDS at a Black Student Union-sponsored town hall meeting Tuesday.\nThe stated goal of the meeting was to discuss "past and present offenses of our student newspaper and new courses of action."\nThe BSU initiated the discussion because they said the cartoon, published Feb. 5, was an insensitive and inaccurate portrayal of affirmative action.\n"We're basically here because we feel the IDS has a blatant disregard for the student body and constantly disrespects us," said BSU President Gerald Mitchell, a junior.\nCarolyn Randolph, BSU political action chair, said there has been little coverage for minorities in the IDS.\n"It has been very exclusive and elitist," she said.\nFormer Managing Editor Amy Orringer, said 41 percent of IDS front pages this semester have included at least one story about black issues.\nOrringer, who is now the newspaper's director of personnel development and diversity, said the IDS has instituted diversity workshops each semester for all staff members and sought to recruit a diverse staff.\nOrringer also said the lines of communication between the IDS and student groups need a better establishment.\n"The effort is there and the hand is extended," Orringer said. "I promise you that steps are being made every day, and it's evident by our work."\nHowever, most of the crowd agreed the quantity of minority coverage does not determine quality.\nCrystal Brown, the CommUNITY educator for Forest Quad and BSU secretary, claimed the IDS gives more coverage to African-American events that include something like food or entertainment rather than educational events.\n"Every day I realize that I am black on this campus and not part of the norm," Brown said.\nSome agreed the cartoon's stance on affirmative action was not the problem, but the problem was the cartoon's historical significance.\nJP Benitez, assistant opinion editor, has been criticized for choosing to publish the political cartoon. The cartoon was drawn by Dan Carino and taken from the Knight-Ridder Tribune Campus News Wire. Carino is the staff cartoonist for San Diego State University student newspaper, The Daily Aztec.\n"I didn't draw this cartoon," Benitez said. "It is not necessarily my personal opinion."\nBenitez said he sees this controversy as an opportunity for the IDS to become more sensitive and aware.\n"The dialogue that has been going on in the newsroom over the past two weeks has been nothing but productive," Benitez said.\nIDS Publisher Nancy Comiskey said she has worked closely with staff members on the issue.\n"It seems cartoons can always tend to get you into trouble because they are naturally a crude oversimplifications of a situation," Comiskey said. "I think that now all of us wish we had spent a little more time thinking about that cartoon."\nKathryn Helmke, editor in chief of the IDS, said she welcomes criticism and encourages everyone's voice to be heard.\n"Obviously this cartoon was very, very hurtful to a large population on this campus," Helmke said. "We need to learn from that and we need everyone to give us the courtesy to help us grow from that."\nAfter the discussion, the BSU circulated a petition to "reclaim" IU's student newspaper.\nThough the discussion became heated at times, Mitchell said he believes the event was an overall success.\n"I think it went very well," Mitchell said. "I am very excited about the turnout and the IDS participation. I am very optimistic"