If you decide to share this article, do so with the intent to change something. If you read this article and do nothing, you are betraying not only yourself, but your peers as well. So here it is: We have been sold a complete and total lie.
This campus told the incoming Class of 2019 that it is an all-inclusive space. This campus, despite its lack of diversity, told the bicentennial class that we would talk about issues such as race, sexuality, gender and class. With the exception of orientation, these conversations have not happened. What do I mean by this? Here’s an example.
Colgate University remained silent on the first anniversary of a sit-in that was staged in order to bring racial issues to light on campus. In fact, most members of the Class of 2019 didn’t even know the sit-in happened, or what it was about. While the Colgate community was dealing with the tragic and sudden loss of two of its students, Carey Depuy and Ryan Adams, a single light of hope shown through the darkness of despair. Through this tragedy, our community became closer and brought new meaning to the word “community.” Unfortunately, that did not last long.
It is no secret that this community is comprised of people from incredibly diverse backgrounds, sexual orientations, gender identities, religious beliefs, political beliefs, and experiences. This diversity, however, hardly feels present on campus, and as such many people feel marginalized and shoved away like their lives and their contributions do not matter.
Here it is: If you want to have a serious topic about the issues that face the Colgate community and its members, you probably have to go a little bit out of your way. You have Alana, on the edge of campus (almost in the woods) and you have the Women’s Studies Center in the basement of East Hall. Pretty inclusive campus, huh? If having conversations about issues of marginalization and exclusivity on campus bother you, then you are part of the problem. If you marginalize and exclude people on this campus, regardless of the form or fashion, you are part of the problem. If you witness marginalization and exclusivity, and do nothing, then you are part of the problem.
No individual deserves to feel uncomfortable on this campus. A summer reading book is not enough to start a conversation about problems that are so ingrained into the campus-wide psyche that they may be considered institutional problems. We can change things here, but only if we want to. We can do better Colgate. Since we can do better, we must do better. Please do better.
I don’t want to fire anybody up, but I guess this can be considered a call to arms - of sorts. We don’t deserve to be lied to, and we need to demand serious conversations between fellow students, faculty, staff, and our administration. No problem will be solved through an Odyssey article, and ignoring the problems themselves will solve no problems. These solutions will not come from a professor’s desk, an SGA Senate meeting, or from an administrative office. Solutions will come from the hearts and minds of Colgate’s students in dorm rooms, at Frank tables, or in Chapel pews. We must not only encourage others to demand change; we must demand change from ourselves.
Go Raiders.
