Hello folks, officers of SAMA here. We've prepared a response to this post.
Hello,
We, the officers of Slug Anime and Manga Association, or SAMA, would like to make a statement addressing the issues recently brought up in a post to the UCSC subreddit: everything the poster claims in their post is false.
First, none of our officers, past or present, have siblings who attend UCSC. This claim that they are related to an officer, who then showed them “proof” of our misconduct, is absolutely false.
Second, the claim that the server is full of older alumni who make current students uncomfortable is also entirely false. We take this sort of thing very, very seriously, and immediately take action should we receive any complaints about unwanted behavior. The behavior OP describes is absolutely intolerable. However, we have not received anything even remotely resembling the complaints OP claims they made. We have only two active alumni in the entire organization, nowhere close to what OP claims.
Finally, the claim that we don’t handle harassment is completely untrue. Again, we have no records whatsoever of the complaints OP claims they made. None of our officers "vent" about complaints. None of our officers make fun of members based on their "looks" (This isn't even possible, as our club is entirely online and we don’t even know what most of our members look like). Our officers are working 24/7 to cultivate a fun and safe space, and we take great pains to respect the anonymity of the complaints we receive. We actively encourage people to come to us if something is making them uncomfortable, and promptly deal with the situation: remove the offending statement, contact the offender to let them know that their behavior was unacceptable, and if needed, temporarily or permanently ban the offender. We also have a Mandated Reporter, who reports to the school when serious issues arise and additional intervention is required. Some of our officers are victims of harassment as well, so we know how serious these issues are and handle them accordingly. Claiming that we do not handle harassment is an extremely heavy accusation, and we absolutely disagree.
We are well aware of the negative stereotypes that already exist when it comes to anime fans and anime clubs, and we work very hard to overcome them and give back to the university. Falsehoods like this undermine the work we’ve put in to make our community a fun place for everyone, and we’re very disappointed to see it circulate.
If anyone still has any concerns or questions about our club, please contact us in our Discord server, or [email us](mailto:[email protected]).
We don't know why the OP is spreading these falsehoods about our club, but we all work hard to make our club a safe place and these kinds of lies are very hurtful and damaging to all our members.