Comic strip containing racial slur stirs protest

By the Associated Press

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. 

On April 3, Meseguer apologized to the 75 people who had gathered on the university's campus 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. 

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 Dean of Student Affairs Michael Murphy, Vice Provost for Education Indira Nair 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 receive $2,500 in student activities money to produce the April Fool's Day edition.