Hampton University has decided it wants nothing to do with Miley Cyrus’ favorite dance move.
The university decided to instruct its incoming class of 2017 at the historically black university on the perils behind “twerking” and why it’s forbidden at the Virginia school during orientation last weekend, alongside other orientation staples like learning the location of the student health center and what those blue light posts throughout campus are.
Students learned the following “takeaways” about the newly Oxford-minted dance craze during a presentation provided by the Hampton University Center for Information Technology:
2. Hampton men do not take twerkers home to mother
3. Employers do not discriminate between twerkers and twerkees
MediaTakeOut.com, which first broke the story, is claiming that multiple sources have confirmed that the provocative dance move has been banned from the university.
“Multiple sources confirmed that [Hampton] gave a lecture to entering Freshman about the ‘Dangers Of Twerking.’ During the lecture they said that students who were caught twerking (presumably on Instagram) could face school penalty,” the website says.
But Hampton school officials are denying a Footloose-style ban on the dance move. Yuri Milligan, director of university relations for the school, told Red Alert Politics that the presentation has been taken out of context.
“There is a picture of a slide circulating on social media sites that was a part of a presentation to Hampton University freshmen,” she told Red Alert in an e-mail. “The slide has been taken out of context. The presentation was on social media and cyber bulling and was titled ‘Sharing Your World Technologically.’ The presenter was cautioning students about posting information and or pictures, that would tarnish their brand, on social media sites. the slide referenced ‘twerking’ because of recent events and to get students’ attention. There was no statement about banning any form of dance or expression.”
Theodore R. Johnson, a Hampton University alumnus, also defended his alma mater in a column for The Grio published Thursday.
“[T]he presenter at Hampton University (which happens to be my undergraduate alma mater, so I speak from experience) is using humor and colloquialisms to do one of the most important things to be accomplished in a student’s first week at college: connect. This is especially important at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) where low teacher-student ratios and close-knit campus environments remain two of the strongest points of their appeal,” he wrote.
“The pop culture reference to twerking was an attempt at connection with the students – a technique that has proven benefits on retention and graduation.”
