Some students say the atmosphere at Utah Valley State College in Orem is hostile toward homosexuals, and they say a school newspaper cartoon on AIDS and athletes is an example.
The College Times cartoon depicted basketball star Magic Johnson and Olympic diver Greg Louganis and cited other athletes with AIDS. A box says: "AIDS and the athletes who deserve what they got." One character says, "I can't say that I'm proud.""That cartoon was sick," said student Mariah Barber. She says her gay and lesbian friends are shunned on campus. "If they say something about the gays and lesbians, people get up and walk away."
Cartoonist Jonathon Juvenal said, "My intent was not to hurt any feelings. What I was trying to say is that when famous athletes contract the HIV virus through immoral actions, they only become more famous. We should be looking down on their actions rather than looking up to them."
College Times editor Tyson Lex Wheatley was cornered in a hall by several members of the campus' recently organized gay and lesbian club who demanded to know why the paper had run the cartoon. Two groups of students also complained to President Kerry Romesburg.
Romesburg advised them to write a letter to the paper. Sixteen students later delivered that letter, which said, "Your political cartoon of March 15 goes beyond bigotry. AIDS is a death sentence."
Last week, the Utah AIDS Foundation mailed a letter to the editor, disagreeing with the cartoon and offering to teach AIDS aware-ness on campus.
Earlier in the school year when gays and lesbians organized their group, dozens of angry students spoke out. Posters for the group were torn down or defaced with sayings such as "burn in hell."
The Times ran an editorial supporting the right of any student group to organize, and that ignited a firestorm of debate, prompting students to write more letters to the editor than any other issue in the past two years, said Wheatley.
One student asked the president how to derail the club.
Romesburg replied there was nothing the student could do. The day when the majority could censor a group was the day he'd quit, Romesburg said.
Does he believe UVSC is an intolerant place? "I don't like the term tolerant. I would like a more informed attitude on campus," Romesburg said. He declined to offer an opinion about the cartoon.