Calvin College Apologizes For "Racist" Spoof Magazine

GRAND RAPIDS (Newschannel 3) - Calvin College is issuing an apology after publishing and selling a very controversial magazine on campus.

Many are calling the college's annual spoof magazine outright racist, leading people to believe the real message is that only white students are welcome at Calvin.

The reality for students at Calvin is that there are very few minorities statistically, less than 5 percent, and the students on the school paper wanted to make light of it their annual spoof.

The publication is distributed for free on campus and was supposed to be satirical, but one reader, Carolyn Rowles, says it was simply racist.

"If you are not, quote end quote, 'Blonde hair and blue eyes,' than we basically don't want you at this college," said Rowles.

Rowles points to at least half-a-dozen examples including these:

-"Determine how many black people does it take to screw in a light bulb"

- One photo showing all white women, captioned "This is how Calvin is supposed to be"

-Another with only one black woman in the photo, saying black women are allowed in to Calvin "provided they're tall enough and black enough"

Newschannel 3 asked Professos Simona Goi, who acts as advisor to the school paper staff, if she thought the picture and caption showing only white women was supposed to be a joke.

"Yes, I did perceive it as a joke, as did a lot of my colleagues," she said. "This is a exaggeration, a satire."

Calvin College is now issuing an apology for the spoof, and says it was in poor taste and should never have been written in such a way. But Rowles wants action.

"It leads me to believe that even if they are spoofing, there's something very wrong with them thinking this is funny," she said.

And in hindsight, Prof. Goi says she would take it all back if she could.

"I did not plan for this to happen, I regret it profoundly," she said.

Calvin administrators did not comment publicly about the spoof, and wouldn't confirm if there would be any changes in the wake of the negative feedback, but do say the magazines are no longer available to students or the general public.