Clarifications on town hall meeting

To the Editor:

I read with interest the February 28 issue of the Maroon, hoping to find coverage of two important initiatives–the Campus Resources Education Committee town hall meeting and the SG Forum on the Rising Costs of Education–and was pleased to see articles on both. However, I would like to offer some clarification.

First, in the article on the CREC’s town hall meeting on February 25, I believe that my comment about communication between various groups and committees was quoted in a different context than originally made. In discussing other relevant campus projects, I expressed a concern that too often different groups’ efforts are not as well coordinated as could be hoped. I did not say, as the article implies, that I consider it to be a generalized problem of the University’s administration. I fully recognized the interdepartmental nature of the CREC, and applaud their efforts to invite student input by holding the town hall meeting.

Second, in the coverage of Student Government’s forum, I found it unfortunate that the section on student participation in the panel did not mention Tala Manassah’s thoughtful comments on educational policy. In addition, in regard to the “graduate student perspective,” the graduate Dean of Students in the Social Sciences Division Lois Stein did an excellent job of articulating the differences among various graduate schools and divisions in terms of funding, and some of the challenges facing them. That these presentations were passed over is regrettable, as I believe they would have better represented the “student involvement” and “graduate student perspective” aspects of the forum.

Holly Bland

Divinity School

Fraternities not homophobic

To the Editor:

As a member of the Greek community, I was deeply troubled by the homophobic slurs at the Mr. University pageant. But I am also deeply troubled by the response to these slurs, both by the Maroon, and members of the University community at large. It shocks me that anyone would think that fraternities actively condone homophobia, or that they are the last outlets for such ideas on campus. In my fraternity, Delta Kappa Epsilon, we had an openly gay president just two years ago, and all of the brothers saw him not as defined by his sexual status, but as a member of our community. I do not want to insinuate that the gay and lesbian community does not have a valid reason to be upset, but I feel it is equally as offensive to stereotype all members of fraternities–and to condone these beliefs by publishing them–as it is to insult homosexuals.

Jack Peters

Delta Kappa Epsilon