Let’s get the obvious out of the way first: That video was bad.
The message Dean of Students Lori Berquam released to students via YouTube Monday afternoon was an awkward, failed attempt to dissuade students from attending the Mifflin Street Block Party that inspired far more sarcastic comments than genuine discussions.
She looked out of place and uncomfortable (a contagious feeling for the viewer), while stuttering and pausing her way through a lecture that was straight out of the condescending parents playbook, one centered around the laughable tagline “Don’t go.” (That slogan is not exactly as inspiring as “Yes we can” or “It’s morning in America.”)
By now, these are not exactly new criticisms of Berquam’s message, which has been ridiculed, commented upon and remixed as it worked its way through the Internet’s viral cycle over the past two days.
Much of the backlash has been warranted, of course. Berquam and anyone else involved in the writing, filming and (non) editing produced a poorly directed and delivered message, especially with her failure to properly explain why the “Cinco de Mifflin” shirts are offensive. This set the video up for a firing range of sarcastic comments from Badgers who were always planning on going to Mifflin.
This board does not know what they were hoping to get out of the video, but surely someone with a knowledge of how YouTube works should have told them something like this might happen. And any point the Dean of Students wished to make was instantly overshadowed by the video’s poor production.
But while there have been legitimate shots at the video, as happens too often when the Internet’s anonymity meets a mob mentality, some people have taken things too far. While we could never expect reasoned, intelligent criticsm from YouTube commenters, the homophobic, sexist and racist comments left on the video by a number of users are simply unacceptable. And while the anonymous comments mean we cannot be sure they came from UW students, the video’s popularity on campus unfortunately tells us Badgers were probably responsible for some of them. The bigotry of some students is far more deplorable than someone saying mean stuff about your favorite day of drinking.
This board likes Lori Berquam, and when we spoke to her in March she offered a smart, eloquent vision for the Mifflin Street Block Party that was worlds away from what we all saw online this week. She talked about the party’s roots, about changing the focus of the day from drinking to something more productive and said she wanted to ask students if the experience was worth the possible consequences. She even gave an explicit description of a successful party: Moderate partying, no arrests, no violent behavior and no trash left on the street.
So as she continues to endure the wrath of the Internet, we hope Lori Berquam shows the confident, engaging side of herself we have all seen for years. But when it comes to YouTube, she should take her own advice: Don’t go.
