local6.com - Report: Students Given 'Racially, Sexually Offensive' T-Shirt

Report: Students Given 'Racially, Sexually Offensive' T-Shirt

School Officials 'Outraged' At Credit Card Promotion

LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- The University of Louisville has ordered an immediate campus ban on credit card solicitors after two of them offered students a promotional T-shirt that school officials called "racially and sexually offensive," according to a published report.

In Wednesday's Courier-Journal, the chairman of Bank One, which issues the credit cards and has a $1.9 million contract with U of L for exclusive access to its students and alumni, said he was "outraged," and fired the firm handling its card promotions on campus.

According to the reported, the T-shirt, printed with a list of "10 Reasons Why a Beer is Better than a Black Man," and illustrated with caricatures of a black couple, was one of the items the two offered students during a campus visit last Thursday in exchange for applying for the credit card.

The report also said that U of L President Jim Ramsey announced the solicitation ban in an e-mail to students, staff and faculty on Friday. He said the university would review its policies allowing other items to be marketed to students.

"What happened is simply not acceptable on our campus or in any community, and we must do everything we can to make sure it does not happen again," Ramsey said in the email message.

The incident marked the second racial embarrassment for the school in a little more than a year. Some students and faculty complained about U of L's response to an October 2001 off-campus Halloween party at which four white fraternity members wore black face paint.