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A town hall meeting addressed the content of HillTV’s entertainment show ‘Over the Hill’ Wednesday night in the Schine Student Center Underground.

There was standing room only as Syracuse University students, faculty, staff and members of the Syracuse community packed the Underground at 6 p.m. for the open discussion forum. Members of HillTV, ‘Over the Hill’ and the audience spoke openly about the issues of discrimination.

The meeting was conducted through a panel which included Hawa Jalloh, president of the National Pan-Hellenic Council, Jamar Hooks, vice president of the Student African-American Society, Vincent E. Cobb II, the NAACP publicity chair and Ariel Dupas, president of Creations Dance Troupe.

Throughout the three-hour meeting, members of the audience were invited to stand and express their own comments and questions. Several key issues regarding the future of HillTV and relationships among the entire SU community were addressed.

Several of the students in the open discussion called for the members of ‘Over the Hill’ to not only have the show’s production end, but also for their expulsion.

‘Over the Hill’ executive and associate producers Shawn Abraham and John Gaetjens said the show had ended as of Wednesday night.

‘(The show was) deeply hurtful and deeply offensive, and us stopping our show is just the beginning of how we address this issue,’ Abraham said.

For a portion of the meeting, the two sat in front of the assembly, apologizing for their actions and for offending the campus community.

‘As executive producer, I take full responsibility,’ Abraham said. ‘It’s not necessarily representative of who we are now.’

Abraham and Gaetjens said the show was intended to entertain people, not offend them. They said members of ‘Over the Hill’ didn’t even know the charged jokes they put in their show would offend people.

‘The goal of the show was to entertain the entire SU student body, and we failed,’ said Matt Herman, a former executive producer of ‘Over the Hill,’ after the meeting. ‘We offended people, and there’s no apology for that.’

At the end of the meeting, many in attendance walked out of the room after Abraham referred to one of the offensive skits as ‘the lynching joke,’ during the question-and-answer session.

The audience erupted in anger after Gaetjens read his apology off of a piece of paper, asking: ‘Is our community not already divided?’

The apology prompted Professor Winston Grady-Willis of the African-American studies department to immediately step toward the panel seats and interrupt Gaetjens. The situation became heated as Gaetjens asked Grady-Willis to let him finish speaking. Grady-Willis continued speaking over Gaetjens.

‘Now you sit in judgment for people that you’ve hurt,’ Grady-Willis said. ‘To have the audacity to want to school us about the African-American struggle is profoundly offensive to me.’

Grady-Willis left the meeting after he finished speaking.

Immediately after Grady-Willis finished addressing the assembly, Paula Johnson, a professor in the College of Law, spoke to the group, adding to Grady-Willis’ thoughts.

‘We don’t know who raised you, but you’re here now,’ Johnson said.

After the meeting, Abraham and Gaetjens stayed to speak with members of the panel and audience. They both said if they were expelled, it would only fix the problem of segregation at SU temporarily.

‘There were others who genuinely want to start a dialogue,’ Gaetjens said. ‘Rather than being expelled, it would be more beneficial to work together.’

They both said they feel working with the SU community to fix the problem of segregation among different racial groups would be better than simply making an example out of them.

However, many of the audience members, like Tamekia Hosang, a Student African-American Society member, said, ‘It’s too little too late,’ and are asking that HillTV disband as well.

The majority of the students in the audience agreed that HillTV let ‘Over the Hill’ run too long without some form of script checking.

‘You guys are just sorry because you got caught,’ said Kelli Watson, a former HillTV member.

Rich Levy, HillTV’s general manager, said there is no excuse for why the offensive material was on the air.

Levy has only been the general manager for three weeks; however, he said he has not run any of ‘Over the Hill’s’ material this semester. He has been trying to get ‘Over the Hill’ off of the air for weeks, he said.

Levy said since HillTV works through an executive board, the entire board must vote whether or not to cancel a show. Some people wanted to cancel it immediately, while others wanted to see if the producers could edit the content to meet HillTV standards.

The audience asked what HillTV’s actions will be for the future.

Carrie Grogan-Abbott, HillTV’s faculty adviser, said since last semester’s ‘Over the Hill’ highlighting a parody about former SU basketball player Craig Forth, ‘any further shows would be reviewed by me and the other members of the executive staff.’

Levy again said ‘Over the Hill’ is just one of the many shows that HillTV produces. He invited anyone and everyone to join HillTV, especially if they felt HillTV did not represent them. However, Levy said HillTV does not have a set plan as of Wednesday night’s meeting.

‘On the Bench’ sportscaster Jay Moran expressed great concern, begging the audience not to allow HillTV to be canceled.

‘Please don’t let it ruin what good people at HillTV do,’ Moran said in tears. ‘We are not all bad people – we are not all racist.’

Additionally, Student Association President Travis Mason said he supports the temporary closing of HillTV. Mason also said this incident is an opportunity for all SU media to re-evaluate their organization.

Mason spoke briefly of his views on campus media. He said HillTV is being made an example of, but others, such as The Daily Orange, should hold themselves accountable for the content they display to the public.

Most students were visibly surprised when Grogan-Abbott played many segment clips from ‘Over the Hill.’

These clips poked fun at and highlighted racially, ethnically, culturally and sexually-charged material.

A large majority of the audience expressed their disgust verbally when the ‘lynching on the Quad’ and ‘Kwanzaa’ segments were played.

However, much of the dialogue revolved around the theme that segregation among the SU community is not a new issue.

‘Obviously there’s issues here,’ said displaced Tulane University student Daniel Tan, a junior media art and psychology major.

Tan said the important thing to recognize is not simply that people are offended, but that the meeting made it obvious the show also made people afraid.

‘If you really want to show you’re sorry, you should do something about it,’ Tan said.

Kelli Watson said she left the station because she did not feel comfortable working in such a racist environment and also wanted to work in shows of better quality.

She said other members would ask, ‘Who wants to go out on the Quad and shoot black people?’ when they needed to film footage with minority students.

Watson said she knows many of the students who work at HillTV are Jewish, and she noted if any campus media ever broadcasted a parody about the Holocaust, ‘those issues would be pulled off air.’

Joan Gabel spoke on behalf of the Office of Substance Abuse Prevention and Health Enhancement and University Senate, saying she is not enraged by ‘Over the Hill’s’ content because most of the SU community has been raised on a culture that builds the message that racism, sexism and rape are all right.

‘Our lives are full of these messages from the day we’re born,’ Gabel said.

She said there is sexual assault ‘because it’s culturally acceptable.’

‘It takes something like this to bring it together,’ said Maximo A. Patino, admissions coordinator for the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications. ‘This is a reactive situation, and we need to be proactive.’

Patino said now is the time for the entire campus community to come together and fix the issues that segregate certain groups at SU.

Kenneth Cannon, a member of the Syracuse community, is glad ‘Over the Hill’ brought the discriminatory issues to the public’s attention. He said the entire SU and local community must begin working together.

‘There’s only one race – the human race,’ Cannon said.

Published on October 19, 2005 at 12:00 pm