“Daily Free Press” April Fools’ Issue Sparks Student Backlash, Editor Resigns

With reporting and contributions by Allan Lasser and Lauren Michael.

On April 2, The Daily Free Press, Boston University’s independent student newspaper, published their annual “prank” edition in celebration of April Fools’ Day. This time, however, their Disney-themed issue invoked a passionate backlash from readers who found the material crude and offensive. As of early this morning, Editor-in-Chief Chelsea Diana agreed to resign her positions as editor and as President of the Board of Directors of Back Bay Publishing Co., Inc. She will be replaced in both positions by Campus News Editor Steph Solis.

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Most of the controversy centered on the front-page headline, “BROken egos: BU fraternity suspended for assaulting female student,” which detailed a situation in which Snow White was raped by the Seven Dwarves. The article said that a “female victim, described as the ‘fairest of them all,’ reported to have been roofied after drinking an appletini at a Beta Rho Omega fraternity party …woke up wearing no clothes with seven BRO dwarves lying naked in bed with her.” This joke and others like it throughout the issue sparked student outrage, and the paper has publicly apologized for its publication.

Considering recent incidents on campus involving students and sexual assault, many students felt the issue disregarded the serious efforts of students and university administrators to eliminate “rape culture” from BU’s campus. The Daily Free Press had previously acknowledged these efforts in an article published March 6 in which they interviewed students about whether they felt rape culture was being taken seriously on campus. The story noted that “while a number of students questioned the culture, not everyone may be taking the issue seriously.”

Outrage was quickly followed by disappointment. BU senior and student activist Michelle Weiser said:

“The sad thing…was that we just had Take Back the Night on Friday and it was really successful. It was a really beautiful moment where the whole community comes together and talks about rape culture…. To have the student newspaper publish something that reverses all that was a slap in the face.”

The paper is independent, and is not an officially registered club with Boston University. However, last year The Daily Free Press received a $70,000 gift from the Dean of Students Office. Observers outside of the student community have already noticed the association; Jezebel, Metro, BostonInno, and The Boston Phoenix all involve Boston University’s name with their reporting of the incident. Many now worry that BU’s reputation may be damaged as a result of this event. As of now, Boston University has not released any official statements concerning the articles in question or student body’s reaction to The Daily Free Press.

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But that does not mean that student leaders have been silent. The BU Student Union included a discussion on The Daily Free Press as a part of its scheduled meeting April 2. At the time, they couldn’t take any formal action because they couldn’t make quorum. But individuals expressed concern with how this situation will affect BU’s reputation. Dexter McCoy (CFA ’14), President of Umoja (Boston University’s Black Student Union), expressed concern that the April Fools’ issue might negatively affect the image of BU’s student body even though the issue’s contents were generally unpopular. Those present didn’t all agree on whether or not certain Daily Free Press staff members should be asked to resign, but Student Union President Howard Male stressed that their editor-in-chief actively made herself available to talk to offended parties. He also said that national news outlets have contacted the Student Union.

While The Daily Free Press has not explained why it allowed such controversial material to go to print, Editor-in-Chief Chelsea Diana published a public apology on the evening of April 2, stating:

We want to stress that all of the ill-conceived jokes in Monday’s issue in no way represent the true values of The Daily Free Press or any of its staff members. While we do not support any of the stereotypes that we wrongly spread in the issue, we know that by publishing the material we inadvertently proliferated them. We know that even though the stories were meant to be jokes, simply writing them perpetuated rape culture.

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The apology did not explicitly state with whom the responsibility for its publication lies. Beneath the apology on the paper’s webpage, many commenters expressed their dissatisfaction. One commenter, under the pseudonym BU Greek, criticized the apology:

Too little to late. This isn’t the first time that the Freep has attack the Boston University greek community. Your actions are inexcusable and this is clearly an empty apology meant to please us greeks and nothing more. Not only will I be boycotting the Freep, but I will be encouraging all of my friends to do so as well. Shame on you.

Kevin Wang (@misterwang, COM ’13), accused Diana of insincerity, asked her to resign, and signed his name to the comment. When asked for an elaboration, Wang replied:

This apology could’ve been easily copy/pasted from a PR template…It feels more like damage control than anything. Besides, I have a hard time believing that they “did not intend to inappropriately make light of serious issues.” They ran a cover story about frat bros gang raping a girl…Stepping down might be the only way she’ll redeem herself [or] the paper in the eyes of the community. At the very least it’ll give the paper a new start, and the act will be a hell of a lot more meaningful than the apology.

It remains to be seen if Diana’s resignation will indeed redeem The Daily Free Press in the eyes of the wider BU community, but it is clear that this April Fools’ prank will have consequences far beyond its intended scope.

The full text of the April 2 edition of The Daily Free Press was uploaded as a Google Document:

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