The University of Illinois’ Urbana chancellor became the target of social media attacks late Sunday and Monday morning over her decision to keep the campus open despite the cold weather.
Complaints posted to Twitter about Chancellor Phyllis Wise quickly turned to what the Asian Pacific American Coalition on campus called, “blatant demonstrations of racism and misogyny.” U of I spokeswoman Robin Kaler says many more students and university alumni responded with posts of their own… saying it’s not a way to behave in a civil society:
“So I think it probably was a good lesson for those people who made ugly postings to see that they didn’t get a laugh out of people, and they didn’t get people saying, ‘yes I agree with you’ but instead, they had people saying ‘you’re really inappropriate and you’re embarrassing me, because you’re really inappropriate and you’re embarrassing me, because you’re affiliated with a university that I hold dear.”
Kaler says there won’t be any investigation or discipline of these students… calling this a free speech issue. As for Monday’s weather conditions… Kaler says the U of I’s Campus Emergency Operations committee met Sunday night to go over many checkpoints. They include clear sidewalks and streets, clear rural roads for some faculty to drive in… and making sure Champaign-Urbana Mass Transit is operating.