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April 12, 2005
Letter to the Editor: HUSC representatives offer an apology for shortcomings
To: The Collective
Dear valued peers and friends:
As the present and future presidents of HUSC, as well as some current representatives, we wish to respond to the events of Tuesday, March 1, 2005, and to your letter distributed on that day.
Please understand that HUSC and the student body we represent have many different people with many different voices, opinions and levels of education on diversity issues, and that this letter is a starting point toward progressive action.
We do not wish to use this letter to excuse the actions or inactions of HUSC members, but to share with you our own personal responses to your concerns. We regret that stronger action was not taken by ourselves at that time and that all that has been accomplished in the interim has been discussions without tangible results.
We admit that there was a lack of acknowledgement of your presence on the part of Student Congress that was disrespectful to you as an group when you came into our meeting.
We recognize that by continuing with our business without pause, we were furthering the point your rally was trying to make, that we do not acknowledge the presence and voices of students of color in how we represent students. We are sorry that as representatives we have failed you in our responsibilities to you as our constituency.
We regret that we have not been more proactive in hearing your concerns and working to solve these issues of misunderstanding.
However, we would like to learn from this experience and would accept any guidance you are willing to share with us in this regard. For ourselves as representatives, we commit to educating ourselves about the issues that concern your organization and Hamline students as a whole.
Admittedly, this is a problem of the entire student body, and so we would appreciate and encourage any further dialogue between your group and ourselves on these issues in any way, shape or form.
We would like to humbly commend you on your courage to stand up for these issues and your success in engaging the attention of the campus and of ourselves. We regret that more representatives have not committed to educating themselves about these issues and taking a proactive approach to represent you, but we hope our response is a small step toward future change in understanding and representing your voice.
Thank you.
Shona Ramchandani, John Mulé, Chris Johnson, Shanelle C. Evens, Tatum A. Tackaberry, Lauren Vikander, Katie Vaughn, Kristin Falde, Michael Pesko
Posted by msveum at April 12, 2005 04:04 PM
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