Before a Memorial Day party even got started, officials at Seattle University told the students planning to throw it to shut it down. The reason: officials were alarmed by a Facebook post advertising the off-campus party, because they felt it had a theme of gender bias.
The Seattle Times reported that, for the party, women “were to wear Victoria’s Secret Pink-brand sweats or Abercrombie & Fitch clothing and talk constantly on their cellphones, according to the invitation on the social-networking site Facebook…. The event was dubbed the ‘Douchebag’ party.”
Students said the party was supposed to be a parody. Still, officials, reading about the party, wrote to the students, warning they may violate the university’s code of conduct and face sanctions. The students decided to call off the party.
Unhappy students say officials have made such before-the-fact moves on other parties. And the student newspaper editorialized that administrators are “flexing their authority in a pre-emptive fashion.” —Josh Fischman
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