CARNEGIE MELLON Slur in comic creates tension

The editor apologized for the strip's controversial entries.
PITTSBURGH (AP) -- The editor in chief and managing editor of a student newspaper at Carnegie Mellon University are considering resigning after the newspaper ran a comic strip that contained a racial slur.
Alex Meseguer, editor in chief of The Tartan, will temporarily suspend the newspaper's operations in light of the publication's April Fool's Day edition, which not only contained the controversial comic strip, but also included depiction of female genitalia and poems about rape and mutilation.
Meseguer apologized to the 75 people who had gathered on the university's campus Saturday to protest the newspaper's 12-page spoof edition. Many of the participants at the gathering, organized by the historically black fraternity Kappa Alpha Psi, were angered by a comic strip called "Harold and the Other Guy."
The cartoon, drawn by student Bob Rost, depicts a goat using a racial slur while bragging to a mouse how he had hit a black person on a bike.
Meseguer said Rost has been fired from the newspaper.
"The cartoon does not represent my personal opinion," Rost said. "The intended humor missed its mark."
The cartoon made it into print because fatigue clouded the editors' judgment, Meseguer said. He said he and Tartan Managing Editor Jim Puls are considering stepping down.
"The Tartan has committed a grave error, one that threatens our mission, our members and our very existence," Meseguer told angry demonstrators.
Preventive measures
Meseguer said he's taking steps to prevent similar incidents from happening.
The newspaper will hire an ethics manager who will act as an ombudsman, and a content review board will monitor future editions of The Tartan, he said.
The board will include Michael Murphy, dean of student affairs, Indira Nair, vice provost for education, and Gloria Hill, the director of the Carnegie Mellon Action Project, a support service for black, American Indian and Hispanic students.
Advertising revenue pays for the newspaper editors' small stipend. But the staff receives $2,500 in student activities money to produce the April Fool's Day edition.
"We all make mistakes and people err in judgment," Murphy said. "The Tartan is sitting in judgment of itself. ... The administration will also sit in judgment of The Tartan and the students involved in this."
Demonstrators on Saturday demanded the newspaper suspend publication, the editorial board resign and the university suspend or expel the students responsible for printing the racial slur.
"As a Jew, I'm outraged that something like this would happen on this campus, at a school that prides itself on diversity," said sophomore Rachel Gross. "It's unbelievable."