While I won't presume to discount the personal experiences of students on DePauw's campus, I can certainly say that I am baffled at the mentality that bleeds through the writings that I find online.
Last year, I wrote a letter-to-the-editor in the midst of the regrettable and spectacularly useless "DePauw Doesn't Care" movement. Unfortunately, it seems as though the message that I had as a senior has not taken root, so I am writing again as a fresh alumnus. As a member of a "marginalized group," I can say that DePauw was never anything less than "Camelot." A veritable paradise in Indiana, I can say that I felt included in mainstream campus life despite QUILTBAG identification. The DePauw bubble was a safe place where everyone was willing to help with a crisis, even if he/she was a stranger. This wonderful, inclusive environment seems to be under attack, yet again, from minority groups that consistently try to reduce people to their demographics. I read on Twitter and Facebook about some phantom "Straight white male" majority that does them harm at every turn. This mentality of being "The Other" is the primary font of campus disunity, not some infantile concept of institutionalized oppression at the most liberal and most open organization of which I have ever been a part.
DePauw is very inclusive, friendly, and wonderful for the vast majority of students that pass through its gates. Rather than get riled up, perhaps one should recognize how statements uttered in contempt only serve to create further resentment between groups on campus.
Good luck this weekend against Wabash!
Fletcher Greer '14
