Gutmann Halloween Flap: Media Round-Up
Ever since posing for a Halloween photo with a student dressed as a suicide bomber, Penn President Amy Gutmann has been getting star treatment from the Ivy League watchdog cottage industry. Congrats, Amy, you're famous! Here's a quick rundown:
- The New York Post naturally takes the prize for most creative headline, "DITZY IVY PREXY H'WEEN BALL BOMBS."
- The Weekly Standard puts on a frowny face: "The images are, in fact, disturbingly familiar: Sympathizers of suicide-bombers in the Middle East routinely show solidarity with their 'freedom fighters' by dressing children up in the same type of costumes, complete with plastic dynamite and fake AK-47s."
- The Jerusalem Post is not psyched about Saadi calling himself a "freedom martyr."
- See the Daily Pennsylvanian for an account that actually acknowledges that the costume was meant to be a joke. Saad Saadi, the student in the photo, says he regrets the photo, but not the costume. Is that one of those "I'm sorry you're offended" apologies? The piece quotes Anti-Defmation League official Barry Morrison: "No right-thinking individual ought to go around in [this] costume unless [he or she] is a suicide bomber or wants to be one."
- The DP also runs a full-length interview with Saadi: "It's the same as dressing up as anything scary."
- Gutmann also apologizes in a guest opinion column, noting that at a party featuring ax murderers, "It's hard to imagine that someone could create an actually offensive costume, but at least one of our students did."
Honestly? Unless you're going as a Katrina refugee named Terri Schiavo with a stingray sticking out of your chest that sends sexual IMs to Congressional pages ... we're not impressed.
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November 6th, 2006 at 9:13 pm
For Halloween, Peter Salovey, Dean of Yale College, dressed up as Fidel Castro, man who has unapologetically violated human rights for decades. (I saw him sitting in the audience of the Yale Symphony Orchestra’s annual Halloween show.) if there were a picture of HIM, would there be equal outrage? would there be protests in Miami?
November 7th, 2006 at 1:50 am
The more important question is, with that mustache, why is Dean Salovey not Groucho Marx EVERY SINGLE HALLOWEEN?
November 7th, 2006 at 7:39 am
As a senior Political Science major, avid Israel advocate, and one of the leaders in the Jewish community at the University of Pennsylvania, I would like to add some context to the events that took place on Halloween. I was offended by the pictures as were many of my friends. There is no question that the student who dressed up as a suicide bomber on Halloween exercised bad judgment. Although he has issued a formal apology, it is true that we will never know for certain his intent.
What we do know for certain, however, is that the University of Pennsylvania is a warm and welcoming place for Jewish and pro-Israel students. That environment is created largely by the policies of the University administration. Pro-Israel students over my four years at Penn have felt exceedingly comfortable expressing their Zionist beliefs. We walk through campus proudly wearing our pro-Israel T-shirts, celebrate Israel Day on College Green, and dance Torahs around campus on Simchat Torah without the slightest fear of anti-Semitism or anti-Israel rhetoric.
Over my Penn career I have come to know President Gutmann well. We sat together on the University Council and even sung Chanukkah songs together as we lit the menorah in the Penn Hillel foyer. President Gutmann is proud of her Jewish heritage and a supporter of the pro-Israel community on campus. As she made clear in her written statements, she “abhor(s) terrorism, suicide bombers, and everything they do.” President Gutmann personally called me as well as other student leaders today, and it is clear from the conversations that she firmly believes what she wrote in her statement.
Continuing to sensationalize the Halloween events does not serve a productive purpose. I as a Jewish student and pro-Israel advocate am eager to return to pro-active Israel advocacy, leadership development, and supporting Jewish exploration. I encourage the greater community to join me in these efforts.
Andrew Mener
University of Pennsylvania
Class of 2007
November 7th, 2006 at 8:41 am
andrew – what a nice press release – was that hand written for you by Prez Gutless. I hate when figure heads use their power to get students ‘on board’ in changing the nations impression of some thing shitty.