The Omnibus

Issue date: 10/19/07 Section: Forum

Media Credit: Grace Jeoung Sophomore Angla Plattner corners freshman Brad Bartlett outside Goodson Student Union. Students used shaving cream against opponents but reverted to water guns after cleaning crews found shaving cream on campus. [Click to enlarge]

The highly popular "Assassins" week will still occur this year, except undercover. The surname has been changed to "Secret Agent" week and in my opinion Southwest Baptist Student Government made a tasteful choice. Until Friday however, the week was still planned under the former name.
Our SGA executive cabinet made this decision with the guidance of Student Life.
The concern was brought up to be sensitive to the Virginia Tech. tragedy. "We came to the conclusion that there should at least be a temporary name change in light of the real violence that happened and did not want to trivialize the violence," said Student Body President Ivry Karamitros.
In my opinion, Karamitros and cabinet were correct and thoughtful. "Assassins" week was previously known on some campuses as "Killers" week, and the connotations brought up with both names needed correction.
Even though it is just a fun game and a great way for students to network and get to know their peers, we should never play a school sponsored game which might seem to some students and outsiders as distasteful.
"How far is culture and society going to totally dictate what we are going to do?" said Rob Harris Dean of Students.
His point was well made. We should not have to stop the innocent game in itself but in the same way we should find a way to disassociate ourselves from potential controversy over the name of the game.
"USA Today" reported that after the Virginia Tech Tragedy the number of Assassins games on campuses greatly declined. To further discourage the use of the potentially controversial name, a student discovered that SBU was the only University found on google.com with an "Assassins" week scheduled.

Continued...

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