Clemson University made national news last semester when an resident adviser removed memes of Harambe, the slain gorilla, from dorms, calling them “rape culture.” Hoping to avoid similar controversy, the University required all RAs to attend free-speech training earlier this month, warning them that even dorm-room decorations deemed offensive could not be removed. But it now looks like one RA wasn’t paying attention.
On Jan. 16– less than a week after the mandatory free-speech training—Jay Sridharan, an RA in the Cope Hall dorms, removed memes of Pepe, a cartoon frog appropriated by the alt-right and often associated with racism. In their place, Sridharan hung generic, orange sports decorations.
One student, who asked not to be named, said the customized Pepe memes were “our old RA’s parting gift.” All residents on the hall received a custom Pepe door decoration.
By deadline, Sridharan did not respond to my request for comment. But on social media, he told one resident he “didn’t think anyone cared to keep them.” He wrote, “I threw them away whenever I put up your new ones, sorry bud.”
Clemson’s director of residential living, Leasa Evinger, compared the removal to replacing “out of date bulletin board content.”
But during the mandatory free-speech training, Evinger explicitly told RAs that students’ rooms, doors, and apartments were “theirs for their First Amendment expression.”
She also instructed RAs, “You cannot remove anything from their door, from their room, or even ask them specifically to remove anything from their door or their room. … Just because they’re graphic and offensive to me in some way, I can’t take that door dec down.”
Evinger confirmed to Heat Street that RAs were not supposed to remove anything posted by residents, also noting that these were technically posted by the previous RA.
“I assure you that we are continually working with our staff to help them understand their role and responsibility to uphold students’ First Amendment Rights,” Evinger said.
Cope Hall is part of Clemson’s “Shoebox” dorms, the same part of residential housing where the Harambe memes were removed in September.
“I miss my Pepe, because it was my personal meme that made everyone who came over laugh,” the resident said. “Now it seems that at least our RA forgot about that free speech training.”
— Mitchell Gunter is a senior Civil Engineering student at Clemson University.
