Student-created T-shirts for this year’s Tommie-Johnnie football game are stirring up controversy among students, prompting the St. Thomas administration to take action against certain designs.

While some of the shirts are no more edgy than in past years, other designs are considered to have crossed a line, according to Assistant Dean of Students James Sachs. One of the designs references the Penn State child abuse scandal, and other designs looked down upon St. John’s and St. Ben’s students.

Though the rivalry shirts are nothing new at St. Thomas, Sachs said it is important for the university to respond.

“When language does go too far, we’ll call them in, and we’ll tell them that this isn’t just embarrassing and a violation of our social norms; you’re violating our code of conduct and offending people,” Sachs said. “Surprise us. Show us you have some class and imagination.”

Sachs said one reason the university is choosing to get involved with the extreme designs is to remove as much St. Thomas affiliation from these shirts as possible.

“Don’t pretend to represent us,” Sachs said. “No logos, no mascots. At a minimum, you’re going to need to remove those things because it’s a violation of our code of conduct. We will ask people to remove those. We protect our image as best we can.”

Sachs’ concern that students wearing potentially offensive shirts will reflect poorly on St. Thomas is not shared across the student body. Sophomore Paige Gardiner, one of the creators of a 2014 T-shirt Facebook page, said she thinks that the university should not be concerned about her shirt design, a rerun of a previous year’s design saying “Beer, making Bennies think they’re beauties since 1901.”

“I don’t think it’s fair to say it reflects the university poorly when it’s all student-run,” Gardiner said. “It’s college students who party and make stupid decisions, but it doesn’t mean this has anything to reflect the college itself. It’s more on the individual students.”

Gardiner made it clear on the Facebook page that these shirts have no affiliation to the university after she received an email from St. Thomas instructing students to avoid connecting the shirts to the university.

Despite the fact that the organizations selling the shirts are completely student-run, Sachs said he still believes if it’s Tommies wearing the apparel – particularly the inappropriate ones – it will hurt the university. Instead, he encouraged positive competition.

“We like to beat St. John’s, we like to do it with class and we like to do it with competitive spirit,” he said. “We’d love to see something positive. It doesn’t necessarily surprise me anymore. We’re not surprised, we’re disappointed.”

In the past, St. Thomas has taken action against students in the form of hearings over code of conduct and probation after repeated offenses, according to Sachs. Gardiner said she believes that, in some cases, the university has reason to intervene when it comes to inappropriate sexual inferences.

Junior Becca Hager said she believes that while some T-shirts cross a line, St. Thomas should not get involved.

“I understand why the university doesn’t want to be affiliated with them because it gives us a bad reputation, but from a fan perspective, that’s what Tommie-Johnnie is all about,” Hager said. “Anybody can make an argument that they’re bad, and yeah, they are bad, but that’s what it’s about. I’m a student, and I laugh at the jokes. At the end of the day, do people really mean it? Probably not.”

Not all students, however, think that the T-shirts should be taken lightly in regard to rivalry tradition. Sophomore David Kirsch said he considers the inappropriate designs offensive and thinks they reflect poorly on St. Thomas.

“That’s not acceptable,” Kirsch said. “St. Thomas is better than that in my opinion. We’re supposed to strive for excellence at St. Thomas, and that’s just kind of the easy way out, calling names and whatnot. You have to operate within the lines of courtesy.”

While he does not support the shirts, Kirsch does not believe direct intervention by the university is the best solution.

“Certainly there’s freedom for students,” Kirsch said. “But promoting a much more respectful attitude is good. Imposing it will not work because that won’t change hearts, which is what we want. We want people to actually not feel those things rather than just not saying them.”

While Gardiner and Hager said they don’t want to offend anyone and it’s meant to be fun, Sachs said he thinks some students don’t realize the impact they’re having.

“This is associated with you,” Sachs said. “I like to think I have a good sense of humor, but these aren’t funny. They’re mean and are meant to degrade people. I don’t see anything redeeming in that. When you cross that line, when it’s truly in bad taste, when it’s really embarrassing, when it’s really degrading, and when it’s really misogynist, that’s when we step in.”

Gardiner acknowledged that while some people will interpret her design the wrong way, it’s all part of an age-old rivalry.

“It’s a tradition. I still have mine from last year,” Gardiner said. “It’s freedom of expression, and if someone is expressing themselves like that, it’s their own issue, not the university’s issue. As long as you’re not harming other people, I don’t think they need to be stepping in and stopping the whole tradition.”

Sachs said he does not want to stop the tradition; rather he wants to hold students to a standard and see them make smart decisions.

“These are our students, and we want to be proud of them,” Sachs said. “They could make us proud, they could do a good job and really take this rivalry to the next level and show some class. We have a very worthy adversary at St. John’s, and I celebrate that. If we beat them it should mean something. It’s not just about T-shirts and getting drunk.”

Simeon Lancaster can be reached at lanc4637@stthomas.edu.