To the editor:
Civility and respect seem to be the primary concern of the administration and non-activist students on campus these days. Everyone is so wrapped up in the fact that a large group of students didn't bow down to the trustees or administration that they fail to mention the issues this group of students was trying to raise in the first place. But perhaps this is the point. If we're preoccupied with civility and decorum, we don't have to think about issues of racism and sexism that infect our campus.
Respect is a two way street and before members of the administration start pointing fingers they should look to themselves. Where was the respect from the administration when they ignored women on this campus who came to them with concerns about sexual harassment? What respect did they show students when they waited for a hate crime to occur before acknowledged that there is a dangerous level of racism on our campus?
It was not disrespect you heard on Saturday, it was people who have had enough of being ignored. In a letter to the community President Bacow reminded us that "The strength of a community can be measured by how it deals with difficult issues." This does not speak highly for our administration because its favorite way of dealing with
issues of oppression on campus is through ignoring them in a hope that they will just go away when the students graduate. Here's a clue: these problems will not go away, no matter how many graduating classes you see go by with a sigh of relief. Basic forms of
oppression are present on this campus, and refusing to see it will only make the problems worse.
Danika Kleiber
LA '02
