Letters to the Editor

Sent on February 12:  We recently learned of a situation involving our chapter at the University of Puget Sound where individual members of the chapter were alleged to have made discriminatory statements and/or promoted discriminatory behavior during isolated events that occurred in the chapter house.   It is important to know Sigma Chi respects diversity and understands it is a source of our strength, which is why we strive to foster an environment of inclusion in each of our chapters. The make-up of our chapter at the University of Puget...

The article, “A Second Look on the True Meaning of Diversity” by Jess Wiken seems to imply that selecting a president of color is discriminating against Whites. I’ll start by responding to this argument: reverse-racism is not an accurate concept because White people occupy positions of racial privilege, even when they are disadvantaged in other ways. White people are not oppressed. The centuries of rampant racism and cultural extinction perpetuated by European Imperialists creates the history of oppression of people of color in the United States. Blacks were enslaved and...

To the staff of The Trail, I am writing in response to the piece entitled “Second look on the true meaning of diversity.” I took issue with a number of points in that article, which I understood to be a severe misinterpretation of the needs of students of color, both at Puget Sound and in communities attempting to establish a presence within higher education. The piece described the search for a president of color, or any other intentionally chosen background or identity, to be “restrictive and contradictory to the solidarity...