A green dot: A single choice, in one moment in time, to use your voice, actions or choices to make your small corner of the world safer. www.livethegreendot.com
Two weeks ago, the campus launched its Green Dot campaign to prevent power-based interpersonal violence. Green Dot’s guiding belief is that all individuals have to actively and consciously contribute to making their environment violence-free and just.
Although the administration has offered some recognition of its initial failure to recognize the enormity of the harm done to our campus last week, we, the undersigned, remain dismayed, not only by the vitriol of outside agitators, but by the brutality exhibited by law enforcement officers against two members of our DePauw community.
As the President takes steps to rectify the situation, we hope he will recognize the need for the following:
- An offer of institutional standing with those victimized while operating within their free speech rights, and demands for accountability from law enforcement.
- Use of the timely warning system to alert the campus to the presence of agitators, and to inform the community about real-time steps to maintain our safety and protect our rights.
- 3. Concrete and sustained examinations of campus practices and beliefs that lie at the heart of the ongoing threats to personal safety, emotional well-being, and access to educational opportunity experienced by people of color, women, and members of the queer and international communities. Without such efforts and in the wake of last week’s events, a campus climate that had been inhospitable to some has become intolerable to many.
We, the undersigned, view this letter as part of our own commitment to establishing a community conducive to learning and living for all. We are wearing green dots in solidarity with the students and campus efforts to support them. And so we ask you, Mr. President, to show your own green dot, in your actions as well as your words.
Tamara Beauboeuf
Matthew Oware
Clarissa Peterson
Pascal Lafontant
Lennie Foy
Vince Greer
Brett O’Bannon
Cindy O’Dell
Rich Cameron
Jen Everett