RESPONSE: The lack of Cultural Competency during K-State’s Women’s Basketball Game

**Editors Note: below you will find two responses from my previous blog entry**

"Thank you for your recent email regarding your attendance at the women’s basketball game Saturday evening.  We are glad that you could attend and appreciate your feedback.

 

The video promotion you referenced in your letter was an unscripted interaction between two of our women’s basketball student athletes, including Leti Romero who came to Manhattan from Las Palmas, Spain.

 

We understand that the context of the dialogue between teammates could be misunderstood and apologize that you were offended.

 

K-State Athletics will not be playing the video in question at future games.

 

We hope that you will be able to join us in Bramlage Coliseum again this season. Go Cats!"-Associate Athletics Director, Ticketing/Fan Strategies

"I'm so sorry that you had an unpleasant experience at the Women's basketball game last Saturday due to the video you mention in your email.  As Scott Garrett, Associate Athletics Director, indicated in his email to you, the video was unscripted.  With this said, K-State will do our best to be more proactive in our modeling of behavior and actions to enhance the experience of all of our stakeholders.

I truly believe that this was an oversight; however, we appreciate your bringing this to our attention.  We also appreciate the efforts you have spear-headed on campus to help all graduate students through the HUES organization.

I hope to see you at a Women's or Men's basketball game soon. Good day." - Chief of Staff, President's Office 

**Editors Note: #kanyeshrug ... So I decided to reach out to the multicultural undergrads and make them aware..... below is the letter I sent them.... **

I wanted to bring your attention to an issue I encountered, last weekend during the women's basketball game. In the video clip, two female players are listening to music; one member begins to sing in Spanish to a popular song.

The other member interrupts her says “"I'm sorry but this is America..."--- the song is changed to a popular Beyoncé song. Watching the clip I was shocked and appalled.

The administration (Associate Athletics Director & Chief of Staff, of the President's office) did respond to my complaint and have stated they will remove the video.

While I expected this response (and found moderate issue with the statement), I did want to make sure the multicultural undergraduate student body is aware of the lack of cultural competency that can occur at K-State (intentional and unintentional).

If an incident occurs that makes you feel uncomfortable, I urge you to write a complaint to those in that department and to the President's office. Remember, that this too is your campus and being silent is not an option.

For more information about my complaint and the administrations response, please click the below links:

http://87pages.blogspot.com/2014/01/the-lack-of-cultural-competency-during.html
http://87pages.blogspot.com/2014/01/response-lack-of-cultural-competency.html
regards,
Star Lengas
Graduate Student