The University of California, San Diego (UCSD) is still reeling from an off-campus party intended to poke fun at African-American stereotypes and mock Black History Month that took place on Feb. 15. Members from several fraternities hosted the party, according to Penny Rue, vice-chancellor of Student Affairs. Students, administrators and state politicians have called the party racist. The issue was ignited again when The Koala, a student newspaper and TV program – whose material is mostly offensive, explicit and sardonic – aired an episode on Feb. 18 in which it called the black students “you ungrateful n-word,” according to the UCSD Black Student Union (BSU). The Facebook invitation that spurred outrage described the party as a “Compton Cookout” to “show respect” for Black History Month. The Facebook invitation read: “Several of the Regents condos will be teaming up to house this monstrosity, so travel house to house and experience the various elements of life in the ghetto.” Girls were told to dress like “ghetto chicks.” “Ghetto chicks usually have gold teeth, start fights and drama, and wear cheap clothes,” read the invitation. “Ghetto chicks have a very limited vocabulary and attempt to make up for it by forming new words … or simply cursing persistently or using other types of vulgarities, and making noises such as ‘hmmg!’ or smacking their lips…” The Koala has also mockingly posted on its website that “you need more black people at your party to have enough black-on-black violence to actually justify the name ‘Compton.’” Student Life is conducting an investigation to determine whether to take disciplinary action against the students who organized the party, according to Rue. The university has identified nine students as hosts of the party, several of them members of various fraternities. Phi Alpha Kappa has denied that its fraternity organized or endorsed the party. Following The Koala’s show, the Associated Students of UCSD froze funding for all student media organizations to review its policies. “We must develop effective policies to ensure that our fees do not go to support the hateful speech that targets members of our community,” wrote Associated Students President Utsav Gupta in a statement posted at http://battlehate.ucsd.edu. “I ask that those media organizations that did nothing wrong and are unfairly affected to be patient until we can resolve this situation.” The Black Student Union rallied on Feb. 19. The students angrily chanted, “Real pain, real action,” while Chancellor Marye Anne Fox looked on. “Please understand that this tragedy has marked UC San Diego as a racist university and consequently damaged our student initiated yield efforts we worked on this entire academic year … Several students and their families are considering transferring out of UC San Diego because of this injustice,” wrote BSU chairpersons David Ritcherson and Fnann Keflezighi in a statement. The BSU chairpersons said the university “must make an example out of these students” in order to create a healthier campus and heal the conflict. BSU issued 32 demands to the university to better fund diversity efforts on campus. The chancellor’s office has agreed to meet “nearly all” of the demands, according to UCSD spokeswoman Christine Clark. In the list, BSU demanded the university set up a permanent task force to create more opportunities for hiring African-American faculty; that the university fully fund the Chief Diversity Office; that the university fill the vacant program coordinator position for the African-American Studies Minor; and that the university fully fund BSU’s Initiated Yield Programs. The California Review, a conservative journal on campus, took exception to BSU’s demands and to the Associated Students’ decision to freeze funding for all media. California Review editor in chief Alec Weisman responded to the demands in a blog post at http://ucsd.campus reform.org. Weisman said that BSU shouldn’t receive more student fees than other groups, and pointed to the fact that Caucasian enrollment dropped within the past 10 years from 39 percent to 26 percent. African-American enrollment has remained at 2 percent within the past 10 years.