In the weeks following the bias incident on the Corner, many students have gained some awareness of what happened. Surely thousands of us have received an e-mail of some sort, many have had informal discussions with fellow students, others have organized formal dialogues. Throughout the University community's processing of this bias incident, there has also been an undercurrent of backlash; some ask "why is this made to be such a big deal?" This event, along with every act of intolerance at the University, poses a serious threat to our community of trust. It is a big deal, and we must care about this event and others like it.
We should care because there is no policy at the University to enforce standards of tolerance. We have an extreme sense of pride in our Honor system that allows students to remove other students from our community of trust. Through Honor, students can be dismissed for things that are not illegal. As a University Community, we have agreed that lying, cheating and stealing are so egregiously destructive to our community of trust that we should go to great measures to prevent them. We should care because we need to enforce a community of trust beyond the current Honor system.\nThere is no judicial punishment the victims of this bias incident can seek against the perpetrators; however, if the incident had involved violence, then sanctioning action could have been taken. It is a frightening notion that we must wait for incidents of bias to reach a violent level before University officials and judiciary bodies can play a formal role in sanctioning. Although slinging words as weapons of hate may not be illegal, lawfulness should not be our sole basis for determining right and wrong within the community of trust. We should care because we cannot wait for violence to give sanctions for horrible acts of intolerance.
If we hope for things to get better, we must first understand and recognize that we are living in an imperfect system. Talking about this incident - and how it violates our community of trust - is an essential part of "owning up" to our collective shortcomings. As a University community, we may only be perceived to be as tolerant as the least tolerant among us. Unfortunate events such as this remind us that some of our peers are willing to act in ways that brings shame to all of the University. We should care because we are responsible for creating and maintaining our own community of trust. We should care because we know that collectively, we are better than this.
Ben Chrisinger\nSARC IV
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