After weeks of deliberation amongst the Student Government Association (SGA) executive team, student leaders decided that music at Pause dances and during other SGA-sponsored events would not be subject to censorship.
“We brought it up in an SGA exec meeting – we brought it up at three meetings, it was a super long discussion,” Music Entertainment Committee (MEC) Coordinator Kjersa Anderson ’18 said. “After a really close vote, we decided to not censor Pause dances.”
Earlier in the semester, MEC and the SGA executive team considered a policy to censor the N-word in DJ sets during Pause dances. According to Anderson, SGA had been approached by a student of color who said that they were uncomfortable with the idea of white students singing the N-word at Pause dances. The comment sparked a conversation about Pause dance safety and possible language censorship was just one idea.
SGA executives knew that a music censorship policy would need to be enforced across the board, but that posed potential issues for other branches of SGA.
“We can’t be hypocrites and censor one thing and not another, but that would include fall and spring concerts, and that just wouldn’t really work out,” Anderson said.
After Dark Committee Coordinator Sam Brunclik ’19 agreed.
“We were thinking that … as SGA, if we decided to censor music at Pause dances, we should hold ourselves to the same standards that we hold DJs to,” he said.
The conversation about how to ensure students are comfortable at Pause dances is ongoing.
“We’re definitely trying to think of ways we can address those concerns without sweeping them under the rug,” Brunclik said.
