Letters to the Editor

College promotes fear by not disclosing information

So the underwear thief has been caught. Good. Now we can go back to our normal lives.

But wait; did everyone on this campus even know that someone was entering Copeland and Howard dorm laundry rooms to steal mostly women’s underwear, for weeks, before he was caught? Did the college president send out emails to the whole student body to condemn this rash of thefts and warn the students about the situation? Did the residence life staff post warnings in every laundry room explaining the threat and encouraging students to look out for each other?

No. I live on campus in the new halls, and I saw no signs in my hall or elsewhere on campus until after the perpetrator was caught; the signs that were posted about the crime entirely avoided specifics. I only heard about the thefts from a fellow student in class.

Why was the theft of underwear from dozens of students kept so hush-hush?

Missing underwear may seem like no more than an inconvenient prank when it happens once or twice. But when hundreds of pairs of mostly women’s underwear continue to disappear from the laundry rooms over the course of weeks, it is more than a prank.

This crime creates a culture of fear and suspicion. The dormitories, the very homes of hundreds of students, are no longer safe, and students must mistrust each other. Students were afraid to leave their laundry alone in the machines, yet they were also justifiably afraid to wait in the basement alone. No matter the time of day, if they left for a minute to go get a friend, they would return and find themselves victimized already.

The theft of clothing from woman after woman is no less than sexual harassment of the female population at the school.

The crime was clearly intended to show power over students by instilling fear. Soon enough, the seriousness of the crime became evident, and yet victims were left wondering if they were alone, wondering if the college was doing anything about it, wondering why they were chosen. Only the victims themselves were talking about it.

The college community is not helped by keeping such events a secret. Many students, even those living on campus and at risk of being victimized, were not informed of the crime actively taking place. Students who were unaware of the thefts could hardly be looking out for the other members of their community. And the students who had been victimized were left wondering, alone.

Sexual assault is a not the only crime on campus that is being ignored. The sad fact that hate crimes against students of color are taking place on this campus is not even publicized, let alone officially condemned. Students who use racial slurs or otherwise harass people of color have not been expelled. Perhaps this is one reason the campus is not more diverse, oh Diversity Task Force.

I am glad to know that the underwear thief was not a student; that gives me some hope. But it is still scary to know that people from off-campus with malicious intent can be present on campus for weeks, victimizing dozens of students, and we don’t even hear about it officially. It is very scary to know that students themselves can harass and intimidate other members of the community, and that we don’t hear about it officially. The administration’s silence about hate crimes and sexual harassment on campus is pure complicity with the crime and the culture that allows the crime to take place.

Audrey DeCoursey

Play's torture not limited to middle ages

In this semester’s mainstage play The Hour between Dog and Wolf, there are several scenes depicting torture methods used during the Middle Ages. As I sat in the audience watching Regnier (played by Siobhan Hayes) talk us through the stages of water torture – pinning the prisoner down, holding his mouth open, forcing salt water down his throat – a thought came to me: this still happens today. This, and other medieval methods, are used by the Chinese government on a daily basis in their persecution of Falun Gong practitioners. Take the case of Mei Yulan for example, a female Falun Gong practitioner from Beijing, age 44:

Ms. Mei Yulan was arrested and arbitrarily detained…merely because she did Falun Gong exercises in front of her home. Ms. Mei,. along with other detained Falun Gong practitioners, went on a hunger strike asking for their unconditional release and the right to practice Falun Gong.. To torture them, the guards force-fed these practitioners with over-saturated salt water. On the morning of May 17, 2000, the guards once again dragged Ms. Mei out of her cell and force-fed her. Her screams could be heard from the surrounding cells (Falun Gong Report , pg. 24).

In the play, we see the prisoner, François Villon, survive this torture. Ms. Mei was not as fortunate; she died on May 22, 2000.

In the play, we see that François Villon is a controversial character - we are not sure if he murdered Sermoy or not, and if so, what his motives were. In contrast, despite what the Chinese government would have us believe, Falun Gong practitioners are peaceful and would never harm anyone. They simply want to be allowed to practice a mind-body-spirit practice that has enabled them to become healthier, more compassionate people. And yet, over the past three years, their peaceful appeals have time and time again been met with fierce brutality. As we speak, hundreds of thousands of Falun Gong practitioners are detained in various labor camps, prisons, and mental institutions, tortured and beaten for refusing to give up their belief in Falun Gong and the principles of truth, compassion, and tolerance.

Fortunately, unlike in the Middle Ages, today there are mechanisms through which the voices of the victims of torture can be heard. The Amnesty International chapter at LC has recently been revived, and we hope to do just that. To join, contact Michael Graham or me, and perhaps we can pull the world out of the Middle Ages once and for all.

Sarah Cook