{"id":122120,"date":"2023-02-09T00:03:24","date_gmt":"2023-02-09T05:03:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thecollegefix.com\/?p=122120"},"modified":"2023-02-08T19:33:23","modified_gmt":"2023-02-09T00:33:23","slug":"university-of-alabama-investigates-pro-kanye-chalkings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thecollegefix.com\/university-of-alabama-investigates-pro-kanye-chalkings\/","title":{"rendered":"University of Alabama investigates pro-Kanye chalkings"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em><strong>Chalkings violate &#8216;core values&#8217; and &#8216;campus culture,&#8217; university says<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p>The University of Alabama launched an investigation into chalked messages supportive of Kanye West.<\/p>\n<p>The public university&#8217;s investigation came after two non-student activists, Dalton Clodfelter and Tyler Russell, wrote &#8220;#Yeisright&#8221; and &#8220;America First&#8221; in chalk on campus on Jan. 27. The rapper now goes by the name \u201cYe&#8221; and is running for president in 2024.<\/p>\n<p><em>The College Fix<\/em> could not locate contact information for Russell and Clodfelter. A message to someone involved in West&#8217;s presidential efforts and who would likely know the pair was not returned.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAs soon as we were notified of the chalkings we began removing them, initiated an investigation and organized resources for those impacted and concerned,\u201d a tweet from the official university Twitter account said.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">The University was notified this morning about anonymous chalkings with concerning language targeting our Jewish community. We condemn these chalkings, which violate our Capstone Creed, our campus culture and our core values.<br \/>\n[1\/3]<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 The Univ. of Alabama (@UofAlabama) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/UofAlabama\/status\/1618694324371488768?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">January 26, 2023<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe University was notified this morning about anonymous chalkings with concerning language targeting our Jewish community,\u201d the university wrote. \u201cWe condemn these chalkings, which violate our Capstone Creed, our campus culture and our core values.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em>The Fix<\/em> contacted Deidre Stalnaker, the school\u2019s communications director, on Feb. 8 to ask for information on the investigation and if the university planned to respond to a letter sent by a free speech advocacy group, but did not receive a response.<\/p>\n<p><em>The Fix<\/em> contacted other communications department members and the president\u2019s office to ask for further information in the past week and a half but did not receive any responses.<\/p>\n<p>The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, which sent <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thefire.org\/research-learn\/fire-letter-university-alabama-january-31-2023\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">a letter<\/a> to University of Alabama raising concerns about the free speech implications of the investigation, told <em>The Fix<\/em> that the investigation could have a \u201cchilling effect\u201d on speech.<\/p>\n<p>Sabrina Conza told <em>The Fix<\/em> via email that the university \u201chas almost certainly caused a chilling effect among students whose views differ from the majority of students on campus\u201d by saying the messages violated \u201cthe university&#8217;s core values.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cInstead, UA could have denounced the messages with which the university disagrees and explained that the messages would be removed for violating its chalking policies,\u201d Conza told <em>The Fix.<\/em><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Additional photos are coming in to StopAntisemitism containing the same graffiti as well as &#8216;America First&#8217; signature<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/UofAlabama?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@UofAlabama<\/a> is the next target of Dalton Clodfelter and crew (the same group that caused havoc at <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/FloridaAtlantic?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@FloridaAtlantic<\/a> last week<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/UA_Safety?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@UA_Safety<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/UAStudents?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@UAStudents<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/bamahillel?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@bamahillel<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/7JtGA3SZTx\">pic.twitter.com\/7JtGA3SZTx<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 StopAntisemitism (@StopAntisemites) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/StopAntisemites\/status\/1618675190090838016?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">January 26, 2023<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>FIRE wrote that the officials\u2019 statements about \u201ccontent\u201d were \u201cproblematic.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>While UA has the right to remove the messages for violating its Grounds Use Policies relating to chalking, UA did not invoke that policy when announcing its investigation,\u201d the letter stated. \u201cInstead, administrators said the content of the messages was problematic.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf UA can investigate chalking that \u2018#YeIsRight\u2019 could it investigate a student for tweeting the same message or saying it in class?\u201d the free speech group asked. It asked UA \u201cto confirm to students that it cannot and will not investigate or punish similar subjectively offensive speech in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAgain, UA may criticize views the university disagrees with,&#8221; the group wrote. However, \u201ca public institution\u2026cannot use state power to censor controversial views.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>MORE:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thecollegefix.com\/iowa-state-lacrosse-players-punished-after-parking-near-pot-shop\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Iowa State lacrosse players punished for parking near pot shop<\/a><\/p>\n<p>IMAGE: Stop Antisemitism\/Twitter<\/p>\n            <div class=\"article-truncate-control\">\n                <button class=\"show-complete-article\">\n                    Read More                <\/button>\n            <\/div>\n\n        ","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Chalkings violate &#8216;core values&#8217; and &#8216;campus culture,&#8217; university says.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1286,"featured_media":122126,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1085,1077],"tags":[48069,45324,2698,41956,48071,969],"acf":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.thecollegefix.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/YeIsRight.StopAntisemitism.Twitter72.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2Oh4L-vLG","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thecollegefix.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122120"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thecollegefix.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thecollegefix.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thecollegefix.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1286"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thecollegefix.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=122120"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/www.thecollegefix.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122120\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":122161,"href":"https:\/\/www.thecollegefix.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122120\/revisions\/122161"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thecollegefix.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/122126"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thecollegefix.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=122120"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thecollegefix.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=122120"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thecollegefix.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=122120"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}