A Cinco de Mayo themed event held at Case Dining Hall sponsored by University Dining sparked backlash on social media when photos of students wearing sombreros and chocolate mustache party favors surfaced Monday.
Jennifer Gilmore, director of marketing and communication for Campus Enterprises, said it didn’t take long after the event for students to approach her and post to the Wolfpack Students Facebook page about the potentially offensive giveaways.
At about 5 p.m. Monday, University Dining issued an official apology after being notified that many students found the celebrations offensive.
“University Dining strives to uphold the expectations of the university and to live up to its high standards,” the apology stated. “Today we did not. While planned with good intentions, our event offended many people, and for that we sincerely apologize.”
Cristal Vivanco, president of Mi Familia at N.C. State, said the problem with the event was that it publically endorsed a stereotype.
“I think the event, more so than just being insensitive, was just plain ignorant,” Vivanco said. “I’d think a university that holds itself to a higher educational standard wouldn’t condone something like this.”
While University Dining has put together Cinco de Mayo themed celebrations featuring free sombreros in the past, this year was the first to include chocolate mustaches as party favors, Gilmore said.
Gilmore said because the use mustaches as decorations have become popular, the event planners saw the favors and thought they would be fun, but did not expect the resulting backlash from students.
“You don’t know what you don’t know,” Gilmore said. “So when someone points out that it might be potentially offensive, from that point on you are responsible because you know it. I think that is how things came together today. It was a blinding glimpse of the obvious as soon as it was pointed out.”
Randy Lait, the senior director for hospitality and marketing services at Campus Enterprises, said he apologizes profusely for the offense.
“It wasn’t our intent, but I think we crossed a line between celebrating a culture, and, with the sombreros and chocolate mustaches that we gave out, kind of making a cartoon characterization of a culture,” Lait said. “We shouldn’t have done that.”
Vivanco said she would like to see the University take further action beyond issuing an online apology and posting it to a Facebook page.
Vivanco said students who found the material offensive should meet with University Dining officials, Chancellor Randy Woodson, Vice Chancellor and Dean of Academic and Student Affairs Mike Mullen and other administrators.
“It’s a post, but there is something to be said about a personal apology,” Vivanco said. “The University should have a conversation about why things like this can happen, why it’s condoned and how we can help others who don’t quite understand.”
Student Body President Rusty Mau sent a campus-wide email to students Monday which stated Student Government’s stance on diversity and cultural awareness, but did not mention the incident in Case Dining Hall.
When asked for an interview, Guadalupe Arce, a member of the Student Government Diversity Commission, responded with an email stating Student Government is “working closely” with students and administrators to make sure University upholds the compact, but also declined to address the Cinco de Mayo incident.