One and a half weeks of campus confusion, tension, anger and disbelief will be addressed tonight at a university-sponsored diversity forum to confront controversy over a racially insensitive Bank One giveaway t-shirt.
The forum, which will be held at 5 pm in the Red Barn, will feature both university and Bank One representatives, and will be an open discussion in which students are invited to ask questions and voice opinions concerning last Thursday's incident. "This is our opportunity to address students, answer questions, apologize again, and take responsibility," Bank One spokesperson Nancy Norris said yesterday, "and to go over actions we've already taken."
According to Norris, Bank One has received several dozen "phone calls and emails that we've responded to individually" concerning the shirt, but the company "has not seen any significant closing of accounts."
Bank One Louisville president Dennis Heishman, executive vice president of credit cards Tom Kerwin, and 18 to 20 various representatives from Bank One will be present at the forum. "I hope Bank One gives a sincere apology to the students of this university and lets us know how something like this could happen," Student Government Association president Chris Marlin said yesterday.
U of L spokeswoman Rae Goldsmith said that the purpose of the informal forum is "to meet with students and share their apologies and concerns."
Last Thursday, solicitors offering Bank One credit cards were stationed in the Student Activities Center, a site not uncommon to those students who frequent that area of campus. The two white solicitors, one male and the other female, had a promotional t-shirt that read: "Ten Reasons a Beer is Better Than a Black Man" which students received upon application for the credit card. Some of the "reasons" cited on the back of the shirt: "A beer won't yell at your kids" and "A beer won't get you pregnant."
"I'm outraged. To be embarrassed like this is disgraceful," Jamie Dimon, chairman of Chicago-based Bank One, said in last Wednesday's Courier-Journal. The university, which called the shirts "racially and sexually offensive," took immediate steps to control the situation. The following day, U of L president James Ramsey banned all credit card solicitors from campus. He also broke the university's $1.9 million contract with Bank One, effective last Friday.
Acting Assistant Vice President for Student Affairs Al Herring said yesterday he thinks that the administration has exemplified a higher level of action regarding this incident. He also said that he hopes "there will be constructive dialogue about what happened and about how to handle something like this in the future" at tonight's forum.
Following the university's termination of its contract, Bank One broke its contract with the advertising agency responsible for the t-shirts, FrontLine Event Marketing of Philadelphia. Representatives from FrontLine, which claims on its website to be "the largest marketer of credit cards to college students in the United States," have not been available for comment, although last week's Courier-Journal article quoted FrontLine president Ed Solomon as calling the promotion "absolutely repugnant." Solomon also said that Indianapolis-based supervisor Connie Whitlock, who was responsible for training the two solicitors, has been fired.
Vice Provost for Diversity and Cultural Affairs Dr. Mordean Taylor-Archer was not available for comment yesterday.
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