Dye’s disappointment

To the Editors:

In recent weeks, student and faculty have reported to me that stickers and graffiti bearing the words “Zionism=Racism” have appeared in public spaces across the campus.
A liberal education should open and complicate our minds and the ways we see and understand the world. Statements such as this one work against this goal. It is hurtful and divisive, and makes it more difficult to have open, engaged dialogue on campus. And such statements are invariably reductive: they don’t help us make sense of the complexities and ironies of history, ideas, culture, politics and human behavior.
Making our campus a truly free space is an endeavor that requires everybody’s efforts, particularly now. Because we are living through a very difficult and uncertain time, we must be especially mindful of appreciating our differences and of respectfully negotiating our disagreements. And, as always in an academic community, we need to rely on knowledge and reason as we engage the deeply troubling issues that now confront this campus, this nation and the world at large.

—Nancy S. Dye
College President