A Utah university has issued a statement after a flyer distributed on campus advertising a ‘Women in Math’ panel with only male speakers sparked an online backlash.
Brigham Young University became the target of online anger this week after a student, Stephanie Driggs, shared an image of the flyer on Twitter.
The blue-colored page appeared to be thumb-tacked to a board in the school, and bore the words in bold, bright white: ‘Women In Math.’ Pictured above that were the photos of four male professors.
Can’t be: Brigham Young University student Stephanie Driggs went viral after sharing this poster spotted on campus
Not hitting the mark: The poster advertised an event for ‘Women In Math’ that only featured male speakers
The rest of the advertisement encouraged ‘all women who love math’ to ‘come learn about research done in data science, topology, number theory, and dynamical systems from four BYU math professors.’
The student, flabbergasted by the tone deaf flyer, shared the image of it online and captioned it with: ‘Is this satire?’
The tweet, which has since been deleted, quickly went viral. It in turn sparked a massive backlash against the school.
It turns out that the event was being staged by a student-led organization rather than the university itself. It was this club that put up the posters around campus.
On Wednesday, the BYU math department responded to the controversy on Facebook, saying that ‘poor judgement’ led to the flyer.
‘The poster featured the pictures of four of our department faculty. It was done with good intentions but with poor judgment and was not meant to be satire, though we did all get a good laugh here at the department,’ the department said.
‘The posters have been replaced with a more appropriate message. We very much value the Women in Math organization.’
Coming back: The BYU math department responded to the controversy, saying that the flyer was done with good intentions
Jumping in: The student claiming to have made the poster also apologized for the offense it had caused
The student who originally posted the tweet wasn’t impressed by the statement, writing: ‘I’m confused. Do they really think that the poster was the main issue here?’
Speaking to Fox 13 Salt Lake City, adviser for the club behind the flyers, Martha Kilpack, explained that the outcry was a surprise to the group, and was the result of an unfortunate placement of words and pictures.
‘It was an honest mistake kind of poster,’ she explained. ‘It wasn’t meant to be a political statement. It wasn’t meant to be anything other than encourage female students to come to an activity.’
The event being advertised was organized by female undergrads, who chose the speakers themselves. Martha stressed that the all-male panel wasn’t representative of all the group’s activities and events.
‘It’s a chance to see different research that they do, and we let the students pick the presenters,’ she said. ‘This time, they happened to pick four male presenters.’
The student who claims to have made the poster, Bryn Balls-Barker, also apologized for the offense caused, writing on Facebook: ‘I chose to ask professors that weren’t already affiliated directly with the club so that members of the club would have more opportunity to meet other faculty members.’
As soon as they were alerted to the uproar caused by the posters, Martha and the other members of the group made sure they were removed from campus.