Hello Syc 3 residents!

I hope you are all enjoying your first weekend at UMass. In case you forgot, this is Ryan and Colleen, the floor RAs.

We wanted to take a moment to address some phrases that are being written on the whiteboards – specifically, ones involving “Harambe”.

We understand that social media has been popularizing Harambe in some crude ways, which may appear as funny to groups of people. However, these comments are not only derogatory, but also micro-aggressions to some UMass Students. Similar to RAPs (Residential Academic Programs), UMass also offers “Defined Residential Communities” (or DRPs), in which groups of students sharing similar heritages, ethnicities, and/or identities are able to live together.

We offer a DRP focusing on African-American heritage, and it is called the “Harambe” floor. “Harambe” is actually a Swahili word, which stands for “the point where people pull together”. It has a very positive connotations, but current social media has been misrepresenting it. The floor has been in existence for many years, so any negative remarks regarding “Harambe” will be seen as a direct attack to our campus’s African-American community. Please be careful of what gets written on your whiteboards, as well as what you write on them. If you are not the one writing these remarks, please let us or the RA on duty know.

To be very clear: using popularized phrases/hashtags which encourage the exposition of body parts runs the risk of being reported as a Title IX incident. These are sexual assault incidences that not only get reported to Community Standards, but also to the Dean of Students. Needless to say, it is a very serious incident – especially for a first year student!

Anyways, please be safe this weekend, and watch out for any of these phrases. We need to be sure to respect all UMass community members.

Let us know if you have any questions/concerns.

– Colleen & Ryan