I'm impressed with President Schill's thoughtful response and I'm hopeful this will lead to some constructive conversations and actions. One thing I haven't seen mentioned is that someone was concerned enough to take a photo of this costume, but Professor Schurtz seemed blindsided by the criticism later. Did no one at the party think to talk to her about her problematic costume? Was it due to polite cowardice? Or was everyone at that party as ignorant of the history of blackface as the professor herself? Judging by some of the comments I'm seeing here, I'm guessing it's the second option.