Not The Onion:

Stevenson College is apologizing to its students for serving Mexican food during “Intergalactic” night.

In a letter sent out to students, the college apologized for having “a Mexican food buffet,” while also featuring spaceships and aliens. The college received complaints saying the combination was racist because of the association between Mexicans and illegal immigrants.

“We would never want to make a connection between individuals of Latino heritage or undocumented students and “aliens” and I am so sorry that our College Night appeared to do exactly that,” wrote Carolyn Golz who had taken this picture of the activities before the complaints: […]

After receiving complaints, Dr. Golz said that the event “demonstrated a cultural insensitivity on the part of the program planners and, though it was an unintentional mistake, I recognize that this incident caused harm within our community and negatively impacted students.”

As a result, Dr. Golz “will require cultural competence training for Programs staff, in addition to implementing mechanisms for future program planning that will ensure college programs are culturally sensitive and inclusive.”

In the letter, Dr. Golz then assures students that she is “an ally for students of color and, in particular, undocumented students.” Further, she is “committed to ensuring that student life staff receive the training necessary to make sure that this type of incident does not happen again at Stevenson.”

“I am working closing with Donnae Smith, Coordinator for Diversity and Inclusion for Colleges, Housing and Educational Services (CHES) to continue to increase the cultural intelligence (CQ) of our staff,” she continues.

Dr. Golz then encourages students to report “hate” to http://reporthate.ucsc.edu/ to cut down on insensitive events like Intergalactic night.

She concludes her letter, writing, “I care about the individuals in our community and I want everyone to feel respected, included, and affirmed.