Bookstore teams find their names censored
By MIKE CONNOLLY
Senior Staff Writer
Junior Brandon Griffith was very surprised to learn the name for his Bookstore Basketball team had been censored by Student Activities.
His team's name wasn't profane.
His team's name wasn't sexually explicit.
His team's name wasn't racist, sexist or anti-homosexual.
Nevertheless, Student Activities struck Poor Man's Blanket from the list of Bookstore Basketball team names and replaced it with Team 22.
"We made the name with the intention that even Father [Mark] Poorman [vice president for Student Affairs] would get a laugh out of it," Griffith said.
Poor Man's Blanket was one of about 70 teams that were censored by Student Activities this year. All references to Poorman were removed from the list as well as other names deemed too sexually explicit, insulting or profane.
Brian Coughlin, director of Student Activities, said that there are no set guidelines for determining what teams will and will not be censored. The list of team names is passed through three people — Bookstore adviser Melvin Adams, Coughlin and Peggy Hnatusko, assistant director of programming for Student Activities — and each person crosses out any name he or she deems offensive.
Coughlin couldn't give specific reasons for why certain names were banned since he had to look at so many different teams. There was, however, no specific bias against team names containing "Poorman."
"There is no policy to eliminate names that had `Father Poorman' in them," Coughlin said.
He said the "Poorman" names were removed because there is a general policy that Bookstore Basketball team names should not contain the name of another person without that person's specific permission.
"It's not Father Poorman specific," Coughlin said. "It's a rule for any person. Any person will be highlighted [to be further questioned.] If they want to contact the person specifically, they can do that."
Griffith said he was never informed of this policy or given the chance to contact Poorman to ask his permission.
"They never asked if we had gotten permission, and it wasn't even his name," Griffith said. "It's `Poor' and then `Man' with a capital M."
This general policy does not seem to apply to names besides Poorman's or other University administrators. Uncensored team names include references to, among others, former Irish quarterback Ron Powlus, former Irish football coach Bob Davie, pop singer Britney Spears, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and Minnesota Vikings assistant coach George O'Leary.
Out Faster Than George O'Leary captain Jeff Simko said he was unaware of any rule about requesting permission from O'Leary.
"What do you think? Of course not. We definitely didn't call him," Simko said.
Coughlin claims he questioned names with O'Leary and Davie in them but did not censor them.
"I highlighted both those names so if they are in there, I don't know what to tell you," Coughlin said.
All News Stories for Friday, April 12, 2002
