Content warning: racist/anti-Semitic language, images

When the Hofstra University Pep Band posted a statement in support of Black Lives Matter on their Instagram account, recent film graduate Ollie Perry said it felt like an empty gesture.

“To be silent is to be complicit,” the Pep Band’s Instagram caption reads. But Perry said some band members made racist, sexist and anti-Semitic comments for years.

“I felt uncomfortable,” Perry said. “Most of us felt uncomfortable, but no one said anything and no one would do anything about it. Nobody was taking me seriously when I said he needed to stop.”

Five former band members said that the offensive content largely came from Maxwell Dexter, a 2018 entrepreneurship graduate. The former members, most of whom requested to remain anonymous due to fear of social retaliation, alleged that Dexter cracked jokes about Jewish students, made objectifying comments about female athletes during games where the Pep Band played and sent Holocaust and Ku Klux Klan memes in Pep Band group chats for years. They also said band captains did little to curb the inappropriate behavior.

“These incidents of racism were enabled by a general culture of favoritism and a lack of accountability,” said one former Pep Band member who graduated in 2019. “The captains wouldn’t listen to you about problems within the group, and if they did, then they would just do nothing about it.”

“Toad Sage” was a nickname Dexter used within the group chats in question, and this was confirmed by Pep Band members.

Dexter denied multiple requests for comment. Although he graduated in December 2018, he occasionally came back to play as an alumnus up until this past spring semester. Dexter also worked as a lifeguard at the Hofstra swimming pool through March 2020. The university would not say whether or not he will be resuming his employment at Hofstra University when the swimming pool reopens post-quarantine.

“The Division of Student Affairs, the Office of Intercultural Engagement and Inclusion, the Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer and Campus Recreation are working with the leadership of the Pep Band to address recent concerns from its membership about the organization’s culture,” said Karla Schuster, assistant vice president of University Relations. “These efforts include facilitating diversity training for members, and reviewing the structure of the Pep Band, which is a student-led club.”

Captains also took part in a Diversity and Inclusion training with Hofstra’s Office of Intercultural Engagement and Inclusion earlier this month. The training session was open to any member who wished to attend.

On Instagram, the Pep Band issued a statement apologizing for their handling of these issues in the past. “The Hofstra Pep Band has been in the process of regrowth over the past few years,” the statement reads, citing “new leadership” and the establishment of a club constitution. “We recognize that no one acted upon [these complaints], and for that, we’re sorry.” The statement went on to ban an unnamed “individual” from future Pep Band events. The current captains later confirmed that this ban refers specifically to Dexter.

Former band members provided screenshots of multiple Pep Band group chats spanning from 2016 to 2018. Of the seven incidents captured by the screenshots, six were messages from Dexter. He sent one meme in a pep band group chat depicting a “SpongeBob SquarePants” character running from a burning kitchen with the caption, “Squidward, the big-nosed Jew, tries hard to escape from Auschwitz, but in the end his efforts were in vain.”

Another meme Dexter sent showed a white-hooded KKK member edited into the title sequence of “Ben 10,” a cartoon about a superhero who transforms into alien creatures to fight crime. “When the loud black [sic] girl in class won’t be quiet,” the meme said, the “punchline” being that one would react by transforming into a member of the KKK. Dexter also shared a photo comparing Black Lives Matter protesters to the movie poster for “Planet of the Apes.”

The group chats in question were for break-out rehearsal groups and did not contain every single member of the band. Although captains weren’t in the chats in question, multiple former members said Dexter had a well-known reputation for this kind of humor.

Unlike student-led clubs overseen by the Office of Student Leadership and Engagement, the Pep Band’s captains are not elected by members of the group. They are instead selected via application process by a part-time faculty advisor and traditionally keep the position until they graduate. Pep Band captains occupy a paid position – although they are not technically Hofstra employees, they do receive a stipend for their work.

“The inaction of the old, and some current captains, does not surprise me,” said Dominic Schiraldi, a senior English and creative writing major who served as a captain during the 2019-2020 school year.

Schiraldi said he will be stepping down after one year in the role. “A lot of times there is inaction and stuff gets swept under the rug because no one wants to hurt their friends,” he said.

“When I came into the band as a freshman, I had been told by other individuals in the band that there are a few people in the band that were racist or said homophobic comments, just as a warning because I am queer,” said Michela Polek, a senior English major and a band captain since Fall 2019. She also felt that band members became desensitized to the jokes. “People had gotten so used to it that they just ignored it, which wasn’t right,” she said.

Perry also provided screenshots showing messages exchanged with Pietro D’Angelo, a senior civil engineering major who has held the captainship since 2017, about an incident in which Dexter and another band member allegedly used the “n-word” at a social event unrelated to the Pep Band. D’Angelo will be stepping down from the role for the remainder of his time of Hofstra, as he graduates in Fall 2020.

“I feel as though an apology is not enough to remedy the pain that was brought,” D’Angelo told The Chronicle in an email. “That’s why, in my last semester at Hofstra, I will be working with the new Captain and the current Captains to ensure that this type of culture does not continue within the Pep Band.”

The fourth captain who served during the 2019-2020 school year is Lauren Zaremba, a senior psychology and linguistics major who has been a captain since Fall 2018. She intends to continue her role as captain for the upcoming academic year. Zaremba, who is Dexter’s longtime girlfriend, acknowledged the harm his memes caused. But in regard to what could have been done differently, she said she “isn’t quite sure.”

 “We’re all just students,” she said. “We did the best with the tools we had.”

Zaremba said that she had numerous private conversations with Dexter about his behavior over the years. She said none of the members of the band ever personally approached her about Dexter’s behavior. “I know it wasn’t meant maliciously, but I guess private things aren’t always private,” she said. “We definitely need to have greater sensitivity, and we agree that it was wrong to ignore it.”

The resurfaced memes also played a role in reigniting campus discourse surrounding a centralized online harassment reporting system for the university. Administration had previously said the reporting system, which has not yet been put in place, would be implemented during spring break of 2019.

Schuster said it is now expected to be ready during the Fall 2020 semester.

“At this point we feel a little brushed off,” said Student Government Association Vice President Alexa Osner, who told The Chronicle she’s made multiple inquiries about the reporting system since her inauguration in May. “A lot [of] students want to report, but it can feel like [there are] no effective channels to do so.”

Osner suggested emailing Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer Cornell Craig or Title IX Officer for Student Issues
Allison Vernace with any concerns about harassment. In some cases, students may be able to file a complaint with the Federal Office of Civil Rights through that office’s website.