After some serious snowfall on Wednesday, several colleges were forced to cancel classes. But University of Illinois students were not so lucky last Monday.

Despite wind chills of minus 27 degrees, the university’s classes were not canceled, leading students to create the hashtag #f***Phyllis and tweeting several offensive and racist comments about University of Illinois chancellor Phyllis Wise — many aimed at the chancellor’s Asian heritage and gender.

Wise emailed the university community on Jan. 26and told them that classes would remain in session for the next day.  Students started tweeting after that and created a parody Twitter account for the chancellor, as well as creating an online petition to get classes canceled, according to a Jan. 27 Buzzfeed article.

There was also backlash against the hashtag as Twitter users pointed out the inappropriateness of the tweets.  Many responders told the original #f***Phyllis students that if they didn’t like the decision, they could have chosen to skip class instead of taking to social media to target one person, according to the article.

Jeff Lieberson, the vice president of the Association of Public Land Grant Universities, of which University of Illinois is a member, said this event only involved a few students.

“We’re confident that it was a small, narrow group of people and Chancellor Wise is an extraordinary leader at that University,” Lieberson said.

Some of the tweets against the chancellor included: “Communist China no stop by cold,” “Phyllis Wise is the Kim Jong Un of chancellors” and “In a room with Phyllis Wise, Adolf Hitler and a gun with one bullet. Who do I shoot?”

Some of the rebuttal tweets included: “I agree it sucks going to class when it’s freezing. Be an adult. Stay home if it’s safer, but don’t make racial slurs,” and “Hey, if you stay home, UofI students — and that’s okay— maybe educate yourself on this: Ethnic/Racial Slurs Are Never OK.”

Several websites have speculated whether Wise would’ve received the same level of Twitter aggression had she not been female and a minority.

A campus judicial officer ruled the tweets as protected speech so the students will not be punished.  Wise said she was aware of the Twitter commentary and released a statement saying that the tweets “disturbed” her and they weren’t in keeping with the environment that she wanted to foster at the university.

“What was most disturbing was witnessing social media drive a discussion quickly into the abyss of hateful comments and even threats of violence,” Wise said in her statement. “I shudder to think what might happen if that type of vitriol were directed at a vulnerable member of our student body or university community.

“On Monday, Jan. 27, we held classes, as usual, at the University of Illinois. And, I hope, we all learned something,” she concluded.

Student body president Damien R. Bolden issued an apology to Wise on behalf of the student body. He quoted the university’s Inclusivity Statement and said maintaining an “inclusive environment” was an important virtue at the school.

Said Bolden: “We must remember that to ensure a learning and working environment as diverse as our population civility, respect and tolerance must always be shown through our words and actions toward each other and all members of our community.”

Published on February 6, 2014 at 1:10 am

Contact: clmoran@syr.edu