2008 Woodie Awards
Letters to the Editor
Issue date: 3/10/06 Section: Opinion
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Ermyasâ?TM representation is right-on
To the Editor:Having read Tinbete Ermyasâ?TM recent article, we are reminded of our own grand olâ?TM days at Macalester. We remember Caribbean menu day at Kagin, with the festive beach décor and the wonderfully entitled â?oeRasta Pasta.â?? We remember the numerous meetings of numerous committees to numerously define multiculturalism. We remember playing a Benny Hillesque game of hide and seek with the school photographer (or â?oeMac Camâ?? as we lovingly called him) so that the one time he caught us smiling wouldnâ?TMt then make the pages of the student prospectus. We remember countless nights writing recommendations to the powers-that-be, so that we the students of color could make Macalester the best that it could be. It is almost heartwarming that the Macalester we knew hasnâ?TMt changed much at all.
Fear not, young Tinbete, you are not alone in your concerns. There are many before you that have uttered your very words. Five years before you. Ten years before you. Thirty years before you. Retention and recruitment rates of faculty and students of colour continue to be disgracefully abysmal. Lip service being paid to change, with no real institutional commitment remains the order of the day (an alleged budget of $36,000 a year to the Department of Multicultural Life is the stipend of two graduate students). However, it is not in our nature to give up on Macalester. We have sent a letter to President Rosenberg with our concerns. We will continue to try to make it the best that it can be.Sarah Fuentes â?TM01Chad Jones â?TM00Kwame Phillips â?TM01Shana Redmond â?TM02 Kara Von Blasingame â?TM02
Informality is not synonomous with disrespect
To the Editor:Iâ?TMm writing in response to Dr. Stewartâ?TMs comments that Kofi Annan should be referred to as â?oeMr. Annanâ?? as opposed to â?oeKofi.â?? Many students often feel a connection with the alumni of the school, and the alumni, one would hope, with the students. It is therefore not too surprising that Kofi Annan is referred to as â?oeKofiâ?? as a sign of this closeness. I do not think such a informality means â?oedisrespect,â?? as many liberals refer to George W. Bush as Bush without having much respect for him at all. Counterintuitively, it represents a form of appreciation in its informality. Now, by all means, Kofi Annan should be addressed as Mr. Annan when spoken to publicly (because not doing so would be an actual stance towards disrespect based on precedence), but this does not mean that in conversations we should step over ourselves to venerate him based on his position.
To the Editor:Having read Tinbete Ermyasâ?TM recent article, we are reminded of our own grand olâ?TM days at Macalester. We remember Caribbean menu day at Kagin, with the festive beach décor and the wonderfully entitled â?oeRasta Pasta.â?? We remember the numerous meetings of numerous committees to numerously define multiculturalism. We remember playing a Benny Hillesque game of hide and seek with the school photographer (or â?oeMac Camâ?? as we lovingly called him) so that the one time he caught us smiling wouldnâ?TMt then make the pages of the student prospectus. We remember countless nights writing recommendations to the powers-that-be, so that we the students of color could make Macalester the best that it could be. It is almost heartwarming that the Macalester we knew hasnâ?TMt changed much at all.
Fear not, young Tinbete, you are not alone in your concerns. There are many before you that have uttered your very words. Five years before you. Ten years before you. Thirty years before you. Retention and recruitment rates of faculty and students of colour continue to be disgracefully abysmal. Lip service being paid to change, with no real institutional commitment remains the order of the day (an alleged budget of $36,000 a year to the Department of Multicultural Life is the stipend of two graduate students). However, it is not in our nature to give up on Macalester. We have sent a letter to President Rosenberg with our concerns. We will continue to try to make it the best that it can be.Sarah Fuentes â?TM01Chad Jones â?TM00Kwame Phillips â?TM01Shana Redmond â?TM02 Kara Von Blasingame â?TM02
Informality is not synonomous with disrespect
To the Editor:Iâ?TMm writing in response to Dr. Stewartâ?TMs comments that Kofi Annan should be referred to as â?oeMr. Annanâ?? as opposed to â?oeKofi.â?? Many students often feel a connection with the alumni of the school, and the alumni, one would hope, with the students. It is therefore not too surprising that Kofi Annan is referred to as â?oeKofiâ?? as a sign of this closeness. I do not think such a informality means â?oedisrespect,â?? as many liberals refer to George W. Bush as Bush without having much respect for him at all. Counterintuitively, it represents a form of appreciation in its informality. Now, by all means, Kofi Annan should be addressed as Mr. Annan when spoken to publicly (because not doing so would be an actual stance towards disrespect based on precedence), but this does not mean that in conversations we should step over ourselves to venerate him based on his position.
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