In response to last week’s incident involving a private vendor selling racially insensitive T-shirts before the Utah vs. TCU football game, the Office of Equity and Diversity released a statement saying it would not tolerate “hateful and harmful imagery on campus.”
The U confiscated the shirts after the vendors continued selling them at a tailgate party, said Octavio Villalpando, associate vice president for Equity and Diversity, in an e-mail.
Because the person selling the shirts, Tyler Eldridge, is no longer a student at the U, the dean of students does not have any authority in the matter when it comes to disciplinary action, said Lori McDonald, associate dean of students.
“We cannot apply the Student Code of Conduct to non-students,” McDonald said.
However, McDonald said the issue of possible trademark infringement is being investigated.
The Union granted the former student permission to sell the shirts after he misrepresented the image that was to appear on the shirts, Villalpando said in a statement.
Union Director Whit Hollis said the Union does not review sellers for content when they grant permission to put up a table in or surrounding the Union.
“We don’t censor,” Hollis said. “We believe in free speech.”
The Union is working on changing its policy to review for copyright infringement regarding any request to sell on campus, Hollis said.
He said the new policy would go into effect sometime after the Union Board meets.
Villalpando said the entire university joins the American Indian community in expressing their repudiation of this incident.
Lucas IsleyPeople selling offensive shirts before lasts weeks TCU game turned out to not be registered students of the U so the school cannot take disciplinary action against them.