Pioneer LogLewis & Clark College’s Student-Run Newspaper

Letters to the Editor 4/30

April 30, 2010

Feld-Gore does not trust nor respect students

I’m planning to graduate next week and I’ve been thinkin’.  Now, I know this college has a short memory, but do any of you recall the “Odell mushroom thing?”  To summarize it in a sentence, some kids were doing drugs and then the Associate Dean of Students at the time completely mishandled the follow-up.  It catalyzed an irrevocable loss of his credibility among our student body.  With that in mind, I have to congratulate  Dean Jeff Feld-Gore for going above and beyond the fairly significant precedent set by his predecessor.  

Although he has only been here a year, his impact on our campus has been unavoidable. From the crackdown in Fields Dining hall on day one (remember when we could take a piece of fruit outside?), to his use of on-campus residence as a punishment… from his hilarious zero-tolerance mishandling of 4/20 to the way he (mis-)interprets our speech policies and uses them to squelch the controversial, Dean Feld-Gore has demonstrated that he neither trusts nor respects us.  For the good of everyone who believes in the spirit of the liberal arts, of open discourse and debate, and of “exploration and discovery,” he needs to step down.  Some schools might put up with his nonsense, but we should not; Dean Feld-Gore, please resign.

Cary Young

College of Arts and Sciences

Class of 2010

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Front page article was out of line

As a strong supporter of the Pioneer Log, not only as a reader, but as a writer and as an elected student official, I was ashamed by the lack of journalistic integrity found in last week’s article entitled, “African Warrior posters are found to be ‘hate and bias motivated incident.’” Although Editor-in-Chief Angela Webber raises important points about the College’s hate and bias speech policy as well as valid concerns about our conduct system, the manner in which these points were presented was not appropriate.

I am a strong advocate for students voicing their opinions, but such sentiments belong in the editorial section of this paper, not in the news. Ms. Webber’s article not only blurred the line between verifiable fact and opinion, but also failed to provide a complete view of the situation at hand. Failure to differentiate between pursuing one’s own agenda and reporting the news accurately and fairly diminishes the legitimacy of the Pioneer Log as a whole and invites unfortunate comparisons to the oft-lampooned info-tainment of Fox News.

I want to stress again that I think that the concerns raised by Ms. Webber are valid and do deserve further scrutiny by both students and administrators. However, I strongly urge the writers and editors of the Pioneer Log to remember there is a difference between news and opinion, and crossing those boundaries can lead to a dangerous diffusion of rumors and personal beliefs masqueraded as truths.

Brad Elkins

ASLC President

Class of 2010

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ASLC fails to represent international students

As Co-President of the International Students of Lewis & Clark (ISLC), I am writing about the recent ASLC Senate meeting I attended, concerning whether ISLC should keep a voting Senate seat.  While international students are often supported at LC, this meeting left me dispirited.  For the first time, I truly felt like a minority at LC. When the rows of white, American ASLC members walked into the room, I felt nervous and intimidated; it seemed unlikely my perspective would be valued.

I came to the meeting acknowledging that having an ISLC representative gave international students a potential additional vote. However, when one international student was cut off because he is not a native English speaker and needed more time, while senators were allowed to finish, I felt it was emblematic of ASLC’s ignorance.  When ASLC members said this was the first time that an international student issue had been brought before ASLC, implying international students did not have issues for ASLC to address and did not need a vote, I felt marginalized. It did not make any sense for ASLC members, who had rarely been involved with ISLC, to claim that international students did not have issues.  Without attending our events, how would they know what we face?  This is precisely why we need a voting seat, so that we are not taken for granted and our voice can be heard.

If anyone in the ASLC Cabinet or Senate is aware of the issues uniquely faced by international students and can make sure our voices will be heard, then ISLC does not need a vote. However, taking us for granted is not the right way to treat us and demonstrates we need to keep a voice in ASLC (and at least be given enough time to finish a sentence).

Shelley Zhao

College of Arts and Sciences

Class of 2010

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Guerrero owes an apology

As the publisher of the original Haka recruitment posters, I have attempted to be understanding of Mr. Guerrero’s response, despite the lack of thought he demonstrated on my behalf as the instructor of the dance. Based on his claims in recent PioLog articles, I feel obligated to make known to the public several inaccuracies in his claims. The perspectives Mr. Guerrero presents are untrue, and contribute to a biased perspective of this semester’s events. As noted by Shavette McGhee, who removed his posters, Mr. Guerrero did not hang all of the posters next to Haka notices, making his already cryptic posters more opaque. Also, at the time of publication Mr. Guerrero claimed to have written apologies to me and the Hawai’i club.  Neither apology has been received. The claim that he has apologized to me as “the person who created the ‘Maori warrior’ posters” is untrue and feels like an insult to my integrity.  I would like to urge the PioLog, members of student body, and members of the faculty and staff to question some of the inconsistencies in Mr. Guerrero’s claims.

While I will not criticize any message he intended, the ramifications of his actions on me were tremendous. Despite the strong support I received from other students and the Office of Multicultural Affairs, his posters made me feel as if I had done a disservice to a culture I grew up with as a TCK in the Southern Pacific.  His identity was revealed to me shortly after the situation broke, but out of respect for his anonymity I did not approach him. Despite my efforts to be respectful, I feel that courtesy was not returned. Mr. Guerrero should put aside his problems with the school’s response and apologize.

Séamus Burpee

College of Arts and Sciences

Class of  2011

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Recent administrative actions a disturbing parallel to communist cultural conflict

The picture of police cars surrounding the flagpole caused this professor great distress.
Images of his youth are playing in front of his eyes. A young man in what was then communist Czechoslovakia, he lived in fear. The absurd laws of the totalitarian system were enforced by an army of secret police informants, quiet intimidation was the order of the day, and the freedom to be young was robbed from him by authorities intent on presenting to the world a whitewashed picture of a happy, and forward-looking “workers’ paradise.”

After John Lennon was killed, a small memorial sprang up in a narrow alley in the Old Town of Prague. It became a gathering spot for young people. We’d meet there, play Lennon’s songs, light candles, and create a community. Every day, the police removed the makeshift memorial, and every night we’d sneak back and restore it. In less than a week, the police stationed four police cars in that street, and everyone who’d even pass by that narrow street was harassed, sometimes arrested and subjected to long interrogation by the communist secret police. The totalitarian state came after us with its full but subtle force.

Four police cars surrounding a place where young people gather, intimidating those who come close, and arresting those who pass the police line.
Prague, The Czechoslovak Socialist Republic, 1980; Lewis & Clark College, Portland, Oregon, United States of America, 2010.

A young man posts provocative posters. The posters are condemned by the community in the form of a signed petition, and public outrage is voiced at a number of organized forums. Few who sign their name to the petition have seen the posters. The young man is tried, politely asked to write letters of apology, he performs penance by hours of imposed community work, and he’s forever labeled this or that.

The Cultural Revolution has arrived at Lewis & Clark College, complete with petitions by the masses against the evildoer, secret trials, reeducation camps, subtly enforced admissions of guilt, and the Red Guards of whatever flavor of “propriety” of the day roaming about.

Beijing, the People’s Republic of China, 1966; Lewis & Clark College, Portland, Oregon, United States of America, 2010.

Stepan S. Simek

Associate Professor of Theatre

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Guerrero’s tasteless actions cause real harm

I fear that this poster incident has been used for political purposes: promoting anti-administration sentiments by making Mr. Guerrero out to be a victim of the administration’s “tyrannical hands,” and a martyr for free speech. Guerrero has said that due to his actions he will now be “blackballed” from attending any graduate school. That is a lie. Mr. Guerrero made the statement that he was discouraged by administrators not to come out. That is a lie. Mr. Guerrero has called the Maori warrior posters “racist” but believes his posters should be free from that label because they were not racially motivated. The Maori warrior posters weren’t racially motivated as well, but they still caused Mr. Guerrero harm. Mr. Guerrero made the statement that he “voluntarily turned himself in.”

Many students, including myself, had knowledge of who put up the posters, and some of these students were choosing to share that knowledge with certain people in power. In other words, it was only a matter of time before Mr. Guerrero would have been discovered, so he did the smart thing by “voluntarily” turning himself. Finally, in a statement that just screams righteous indignation, Mr. Guerrero has called his actions “noble.”  Not since George W. Bush landed on the USS Abraham Lincoln to declared an end to “all major combat operations in Iraq,” has a more absurd statement been made!

Mr. Guerrero, you are fully within his rights to protest, but please do so in a socially responsible manner. Putting an assassination date on posters and displaying blackface images are not socially responsible. They cause great fear and deep emotional and psychological harm. Notwithstanding this fact, Mr. Guerrero has yet to offer an apology for the posters, and he has repeatedly said he would put the posters up again. Celestino Limas has said that students have transferred and staffs have resigned because of the posters that Mr. Guerrero put up. Does Mr. Guerrero not understand what that means or is he too far up on his high horse to see the human effects his tasteless actions have had?

Temesghen Habte

College of Arts and Sciences

Class of 2012