College Council recently printed t-shirts for their members with the slogan “I’m in love with CoCo,” attributed to “TJ.”
According to the Council, “CoCo” is an abbreviation for College Council. However, several students have found the shirts to be offensive and thought the shirts referred to Thomas Jefferson’s relationship with slave Sally Hemings in the early 19th century.
Fourth-year College student Henry Reynolds, College Council president, pointed to the shirt’s allusion to artist O.T. Genasis’ popular song “CoCo” as the reason for his initial concern.
“I was a little apprehensive about having the slogan because of the potential reference to narcotics,” Reynolds said.
Despite his concern, Reynolds asked College Council to vote on the slogan, and the shirts passed by majority vote. Reynolds also said he did not personally come up with the slogan, nor did he know the quote would be attributed to Jefferson.
“I think attributing it to TJ was something that someone slapped on at the end,” Reynolds said. “[It] probably changed the whole meaning.”
After several students approached Reynolds and other College Council members with their concern Wednesday morning, College Council stopped giving out the shirts and requested members who already had them to refrain from wearing them.
Most students who felt uncomfortable with the shirts did not think there was any malicious intent behind them, Reynolds said.
Black Student Alliance President Aryn Frazier, a third-year College student, was one of several students to voice concerns over the slogan.
“I don’t believe that the impact matched the intention, but it sort of goes to show how easily avoidable mistakes can sort of fly under the radar if there aren’t enough people with various backgrounds represented in decision making,” Frazier said. “For some people, it seemed insensitive to the very real racial past of the University and of Thomas Jefferson.”
The council apologized for printing the shirts in a post written on their website Feb. 25.
“The executive board would like to reiterate the College Council remains a strong supporter of cultural groups,” the post reads. “The College Council hopes these strong partnerships will continue.”
While Reynolds agreed College Council could be more diverse, he also said some progress has been made. Students in the College who are elected to other positions are automatically members of College Council, according to the council’s constitution. This year, the council enforced attendance at meetings for elected students in order to diversify their discussions.
“I’d say that we do have a somewhat representative council if you take U.Va.’s numbers and such, in terms of minority communities, they’re actually quite close, but I’d say that the University and our community could be much more diverse,” Reynolds said.
Both Frazier and Reynolds said they believed College Council responded to the situation promptly and would like to see increased representation of minority students on the council to avoid such situations in the future.
“The last several years, presidents—including myself—have reached out to specific minority communities and asked them to apply to little success,” Reynolds said. “I’d really like to see more application rates.”
The BSA held a “Tips and Tricks” event in the fall to increase representation in special status organizations, and Frazier said she hopes to include College Council in this event next year or hold a similar event concerning its recruitment process.
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