A Response to Ilya Winham
To the Editor:
Last week’s opinion essay. “
Tenure Tabling: when protest meets due process,” seemed to me to lack insight as to how it might be to be a victim of sexual harassment. I have three concerns that I hope you and all community members who have responded to this issue would be willing to take into consideration.
First, you seem to assume that the procedures for sexual harassment cases in this institution are effective. My experience has been that no procedure can be appropriately effective, as it is always the responsibility of the victim to initiate action on the matter, and any one of many appropriate, personal reactions to being sexually violated can prevent a victim from being able to undertake such a process. This is especially true in situations where an additional power dynamic (teacher/student, for example) is present. Consequently, victims often need advocates.
Second, you imply that the five students who wrote to President McPherson and the trustees somehow forced them to table Boychuk’s tenure process. In my four years at Macalester, I have never witnessed any student forcing any administrator to make any decision that did not, ultimately, serve the administration’s interest. It is refreshing to think that we, as students, have that power, but I think that it is wrong.
Finally, in a situation where a person in authority is accused of sexual harassment-whether it has happened or not-the rumors and suspicions that emerge create an oppressive situation for all people directly or indirectly under this authority. In this situation, the five students who took action were likely responding not only on behalf of any victims, but also on behalf of themselves. The more that this issue is not addressed, the more the entire Sociology Department is transformed into an unsafe, oppressive learning environment.
Emily Pearson Ryan ’02
Internship system is very flawed
To the Editor:
You don’t think about some things until they hit you in the face. I hit a brick wall this morning.
To start the story, I have an unpaid internship this summer for the U.S. State Department at the Vancouver Consulate. I’m anticipating $3,000-$4,000 out of pocket expenses. I went into the internship office to register for academic credit and found out that it would cost me an additional $2,820 to register it for four credit hours. Since then I’ve found out that there’s absolutely no money for summer studies, nor are there any off-campus resources for help.
I’m resigned that my internship won’t be on my transcript, I just don’t have the money. It’s not the end of the world, it only really matters if I apply to grad school.
But some people are required to do internships or summer classes. If an Environmental Science major does his or her required internship in the summer, he or she has to pay for the credit themselves regardless of how much financial aid they receive during the school year. Same thing if you need to take a summer class to fulfill some requirement or if you’re an international student. Except if you’re taking a summer class somewhere else you have to pay both the other institution and Macalester for the privilege. Or if you have to make a choice between taking a great internship or a job that’ll pay your rent.
At Carleton it costs $1,410 to register for a six credit internship. The fee to register the identical internship at Carleton is exactly half of the fee at Macalester. At FSU it’s $80.93 per credit hour for an in-state student.
This isn’t right. As far as I can tell there aren’t any resources for financial aid. I’d like to ask the college to consider the fact that our educations don’t stop between the third Sunday of May and Labor Day and reflect on whether the fees charged for summer credit hours are reasonable and justifiable.
Hillary Rose Drake ’03
Website misrepresents St. Paul
To the Editor:
Is there a reason that a picture of the Minneapolis skyline is on the front page of the Macalester web-site? As an alum
and current resident of St. Paul, I was disappointed to see that Minneapolis, instead of St. Paul, was represented on the main page. Couldn’t there be a picture of downtown St. Paul’s perfectly lovely skyline or pictures from the Mac-Groveland neighborhood?
Martha Wilson ’00
Students on Terry Boychuk
To the Editor:
Since we submitted a letter to the trustees about what we considered the administration’s improper handling of allegations of sexual harassment, The Mac Weekly has opted to print various opinion pieces and letters, some of which condemn us personally for “ignoring due process.”
The last time we checked, it was well within the rights of any student on campus to express their opinions to any decision making body in the form of a letter of concern.
Quite simply, since we believe that administration officials have been acting improperly regarding this situation for quite some time, we think that any claims of “ignoring due process” would be much better pointed in their direction, not with us.
And to all the professors, students and staff who naively assume that “due process” is doing it’s job 24/7: we congratulate you on spending so many years at this institution without feeling somewhat jaded. It shows some really strong will to completely ignore all the times that ‘due process’ has failed.
Please feel free to e-mail or SPO any of us if you would like to engage in further discussion about these issues.
Kim Christoffel ’02
Melissa Colbert ’02
Sam Liberto ’03
Grant Loehnig ’02
Ann Pandjiris ’02
