On Monday the Albionian, Albion College’s yearbook, circulated around campus.
Four days later, it has been recalled by the college after it was identified that a derogatory phrase about gay men was published within a student’s response to their “Favorite Albion experience.”
Vice President of Marketing and Communication Cathy Cole said, “There was a complaint made about one of the comments in the book and we have temporarily pulled them until we can determine what we’re going to do.”
The comment, given by Bailey Burbank, ‘22, says her favorite Albion experience was a moment in a Spanish class when they watched a movie that featured a gay sex scene. Burbank’s quote says it was “awkward” to be “watching this all together, and when the silence got a little too much, I just said ‘But no homo, right?’”
The Pleiad spoke with Burbank, who identifies as queer. She called the comment “a joke,” before saying “I feel like a lot of the world is really sensitive on a lot of topics that I don’t think we necessarily should be anymore.”
Burbank said she has “some controversial opinions about the things we, as a society, get upset about,” and she feels that the reaction to the comment is unfair.
“If we can’t make jokes and bring humor to things that are difficult to deal with, we’re just stewing in it,” Burbank said. “Stewing in misery or negativity or trauma.”
The comment has been perceived differently by the administration.
Cole said her office “takes full responsibility,” and in light of the phrase being published, her office will be “going through cultural competency training immediately, and it will be ongoing.”
Cole also said that The Albionian is funded and published through the Office of Student Development, but is advised by Jake Weber, a communication assistant who works for the Office of Marketing and Communication.
According to Cole, Weber recently resigned from the position of Albionian adviser for reasons unrelated to the recent controversy.
Weber said the comment “was not idly passed through,” and she apologized for publishing it.
“I shouldn’t have put it in the book. There’s no question of that,” Weber said.
Weber also said she understood the comment as an encouraging take on the queer community.
“I made an error in judgment using the comment, but I feel like the context it was provided in was affirming,” Weber said. “I understood it as a call-out to people that try to put a straight explanation on something that is not heterosexual.”
Assistant Dean of Campus Life Sharese Shannon Mathis said that the publication of the “unacceptable” comment is the result of a lack of diversity in the staff who produced the yearbook.
Mathis said, “Without people from that community on your committee, you don’t have anyone internally to tell you that it’s wrong.”
Mathis also saw a need for more diversity in the groups represented by the yearbook.
“I feel like there’s a lack of diversity, and they missed the mark of representing our non-dominant groups,” Mathis said.
Mathis said some of her colleagues did not initially find the comment to be offensive, saying “I tried to educate some of my colleagues yesterday about the term.”
She said there was “an ignorance,” from some of her colleagues, “a frustrating ignorance.”
Ultimately the comment was deemed inappropriate and yearbooks were removed, a process that, Mathis said, is financially frustrating.
“My biggest qualm with all of this is that we spent a lot of money on this,” Mathis said. “With all the money we spend, there should be more attention to detail.”
The project, according to Cole, cost approximately $70,000.
Anaka McCoy, a Jackson sophomore who works for the Marketing and Communication office, said on Thursday someone from the Office of Campus Life directed her to put the yearbooks away because of “a misunderstanding,” before helping her “pack up the yearbooks and put them back in the closet.”
According to Mathis, it is uncertain whether the yearbooks will return to circulation, and if the comment will be removed.
“We’re not throwing them away because they cost too much money,” Mathis said.
A number of students also said they were upset with the overall poor quality of the yearbook. Names are frequently misspelled, photos are often incorrectly captioned and some people are misidentified.
Former member of the Pleiad and Albionian staff Savannah Waddick, Greenwick, Indiana junior, contributed photos to the yearbook. She said the substandard quality is due to a lack of students who are willing to produce a yearbook.
Waddick also said that Weber, the adviser, does not deserve full blame for the low-quality yearbook and the publication of the controversial comment.
“Honestly it’s not her fault that nobody is interested in working on the yearbook,” Waddick said. “She just needs a committee or group of students that’s committed to digital marketing to work on the yearbook and make it a success.”
Weber shares a similar feeling.
“I have been told for years that students don’t care about the yearbook,” Weber said. “This is a really embarrassing way to prove otherwise, but I’ll take it.”
Bella Bakeman also contributed reporting to this story.
Correction: The original publication of this article stated that Assistant Dean Mathis said that members the Office of Campus Life did not initially find the comment to be problematic. That statement was wrong, and has been corrected at 2:06 pm on Friday, Dec. 9.
as a recent Albion grad I found this story very entertaining
I think this situation is unfortunate, and the headline is misleading. The comment wasn’t “no homo,” which is homophobic, but “but no homo, right?” which could potentially be homophobic in a certain context, but can also be a call-out to homophobic straight people or to queer people with internalized homophobia. If the person who said it, says that it is a call-out, what information do we feel we have to tell her she’s wrong?
Not that a person can’t pretend after the fact that they really meant well, that happens all the time. But did it happen this time? I wouldn’t think so. I speak for myself, obviously. But I speak as an out lesbian who sort of worked with the speaker last semester at the college library.
I don’t know what could have been done by the administration to get more points of view on this, but if they’d asked me if this was homophobic, my response would have been a resounding no.
I am glad for my friend, Jake Weber, that she had already resigned from being the yearbook advisor, because I know over the years, it has been a mostly thankless burden for her. (Again, I am speaking for myself, and not for anyone else, including Jake – maybe she would say that she’s loved every minute of it.)
Lastly, for those wanting to work against homophobia, please consider working with those of us who are trying to help the Bohm Theatre leadership understand why their contract allowing Battle Creek’s Chik-Fil-A to sell at the Bohm II promotes homophobia. (Because the Cathy family, which owns CFA, continues to donate to anti-gay organizations. Every purchase of a Chik-Fil-A product provides money to those organizations.)
Janice Best
Albion College ’98
longtime Albion resident
Albion College staff member
opinions are my own
I feel the real problem is that students were/are put in awkward and inappropriate situations in the classroom. Why exactly did the Spanish teacher feel it is/was necessary to show the students “a gay sex scene”. What were they trying to teach? What was the topic? I’m glad Burbank’s reaction was put in the yearbook. Not because I feel that it is appropriate, but that it put a light on what is going on in a classroom (and maybe more classrooms) at Albion College. I don’t agree with shelving yearbooks because of a student’s reaction to an “awkward” situation in their classroom. I feel administrators should take the books and put them on a table at no cost to whoever wants one. They should have a sticky note on the page with the phrase apologizing if it offends anyone, explain the reason behind it and how administrators will handle it.