Students at Gustavus: White Lab Rats?

Provocative posters were put up by a student group at Gustavus Adolphus College on Tuesday in “an effort to start a dialogue about diversity and immigration.”

Except students didn’t know the posters, and their reactions to the posters, were part of a “social experiment.” And that didn’t go over well.

But Dean of Students JoNes VanHecke knew about the “experiment” and labeled it as “educational.”

“We on campus talk about the 3 D’s, distract, delegate and direct which are meant to be helpful mnemonics for our students when they’re finding themself in a situation that they feel like some kind of assistance needs to be given or some kind of action needs to be taken.”

Apparently college students need posters and “helpful mnemonics” to prompt a conversation about discrimination. As if they are not flooded with this obsession all over social media.

gusty_signThe signs said: “A notice to all white Americans. It is your civic duty to report any and all illegal aliens to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. They are criminals. America is a white nation.”

The student group in charge of the posters, the Diversity Leadership Council, explained the purpose of the stunt on its Facebook page:

“Thus, a subcommittee of the DLC… posted these signs… to help educate our peers and campus community about issues of bias, and the importance of being an active bystander. We want to help put an end to bias-related incidents that happen on our campus, social media, and in our communities by forcing individuals to have dialogues about forms of hate and bias. We hope that members of the campus community will reflect on today’s events and join us in ensuring that no one student or group of students are ever a victim of this form of discrimination.

We understand that the language in these images may be hurtful- we apologize to those who were negatively impacted.”

This experiment went awry because the college got caught treating students like lab rats. And they did not like it. Good for them.