A New York University College Republican event titled "Find the Illegal Immigrant" created controversy and elicited negative responses from AU students.
The event was announced on the NYU College Republicans Web site and was scheduled to occur Feb. 22. According to the College Republicans, it was a game where NYU students could participate by finding an individual who was assigned as an "illegal immigrant" in a crowd.
Newsday reported that 10 people signed up to play, and the winner received a $50 gift certificate. The event caused many onlookers to claim that the game was racist.
Rick Rossi, social chair of the NYU College Republicans, said the event "was an attempt by the NYU College Republicans to create interest in discussing the concept of illegal immigration in the United States and to create a forum where possible solutions could be debated."
The group admitted the event was a "publicity stunt, to some extent," and that they had expected other students to call the organization racist. However, Rossi said he hopes people "are as passionate when future debates or programming on the event come up."
In response to the "Find the Illegal Immigrant" game, NYU students initially "looked to it curiously," according to NYU freshman Evan Barbour.
"I agree, as do most of the students that I talked to about it, that there should be retaliation to something so radical," Barbour said.
A protest, scheduled via Facebook, took place following the event. NYU student Dalia Yedida created and hosted the event, titled "Protest the NYU Republican's Immigrant Bashing Event."
The event description said there is a petition that those in opposition can sign that will take action against the College Republicans by claiming they violated an NYU policy known as the nondiscrimination clause. According to the group, mostly consisting of members of NYU College Democrats, the petition will say the students "refuse to engage with them or clubs like them that choose such immature and unproductive 'debating tactics.'"
Newsday reported there were hundreds of protesters in city's Washington Square Park.
The protests, according to Rossi, had more than 20 protesters to every College Republican hosting the event.
"We respect their right to protest as they respected our right to have the event," Rossi said. "We just do not think that yelling about an issue and then hours later forgetting about it is the right thing to do."
Barbour said that the protesters remain upset about the game.
"The protest against the game is still rather active, and the whole of the student body does support the [College] Democrats in their efforts," Barbour said.
When informed about what happened at NYU, AU students have mixed opinions.
Joe Vidulich, a junior in the School of Public Affairs, said he saw the event as something that stemmed from "racial undertones." Vidulich said it seemed that NYU's College Republicans "didn't overtly know that what they were doing would seem racist," but they still knew that what they were doing would cause a reaction.
Vidulich said he believes that if a similar event were to take place at AU, the student body would react similarly to NYU's student body.
Nick Cavallaro, a freshman in the Kogod School of Business, said he believed the NYU College Republicans' event was not exactly racist, but it isn't something he'd be "proud of doing."
"There are other ways to approach the issue," Cavallaro said.
Rossi said the point of the event was to give a voice to the College Republicans.
"I would suggest that AU students avoid trying to polarize the college campus," Rossi said. "Part of this event was to prove how left our campus has become and how anything we try to do will be met with opposition here."
Attempts to reach officers of the AU College Republicans went unanswered.
