SIU responds to anti-feminist email

I have to say, I’m impressed. When I posted an anti-feminist hate email from the (now former) public relations officer of the Southern Illinois University College Republicans, I didn’t expect any action to be taken.
On the contrary, not only did officers of the CR – Wess Haubrich and Jermaine Raymer – come into the thread to offer apologies (as did the emailer himself, Alex Kochno, though his apology was not as well-taken by commenters), but SIU also took out an ad in their college paper (4/23, p 14) renouncing the act. Kochno also resigned from his position at CR, I’m assuming under pressure from his peers.
And to top things off, I received an email from the SIU administration informing me how seriously they took the email and that Kochno’s email privileges were suspended pending a student conduct code review.
I think major kudos go to the SIU administration and the officers of the CR for their prompt and thorough response.
SIU’s response has really heartened me. I think we all know how rampant online misogyny is, and how difficult it is to deal with because of anonymity issues. But I think incidents like these show how we can hold harassers accountable, and how seriously the “real” world will take hate speech – online or off.
So big thanks to SIU administration, the CR, and the many SIU students who emailed us. I have a little more hope today because of your action.