University of Louisville president, staff wear sombreros, bushy mustaches for stereotypical ‘Mexican

[Liberal_in_LA]

ht


University of Louisville President James Ramsey wore a sombrero and a rainbow-striped poncho at a stereotypical Halloween party for his staff Wednesday.

Ramsey’s wife Jane Ramsey gave her husband and at least 15 staffers hats, bushy mustaches and veils that mimicked bygone Hollywood depictions of Mexican bandits and their outlaw lovers, The Courier-Journal of Louisville reported.

The group posed for a picture while wearing the garb and holding up maracas during a luncheon at Amelia Place, the president’s university-owned mansion. Ramsey’s chief of staff issued an apology Thursday after the photo showed up online in a Courier-Journal story about the historic property and prompted an outrage.

Latino students - whose presence at the school mirrors Kentucky’s 3.4% Latino population - condemned the costume party.

“I was appalled,” said freshman Leonardo Salinas. “It's not just offensive to Mexicans; it's offensive to the immigrant community as a whole. Someone thought, ‘Oh, this is a good idea.’ How did it not click in anybody's mind that it was a very bad idea?”
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/louisville-president-staff-wear-stereotypical-costumes-article-1.2417301

[riversedge]

1. There are other major problems at this University...

.....University officials said that they “made a mistake and are very sorry” in the statement from Kathleen Smith, Ramsey’s chief of staff. She promised “a series of campus conversations” around racial tolerance.

“This event shows we have much more to learn about our community.” she said. “Our office will institute immediate training on diversity and racial equality issues.”

Allegations that a former assistant basketball coach hired an escort to arrange strippers and sex for prospective recruits have already rocked the public university. The former escort’s claims in her book “Breaking Cardinal Rules: Basketball and the Escort Queen" has prompted multiple investigations and should have had Ramsey on alert, editor-in-chief Olivia Krauth wrote in The Louisville Cardinal.

“As the president of a university, I would expect more,” she wrote in the student newspaper. “As the president of a university currently in the middle of a scandal in the national news, I would expect even more than that. I would expect discretion. I would expect thought and research into whether or not this is considered offensive.”

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

2. Facepalm. It's too early in the morning for this .... nt