I am fed up with the discrimination that I have not only heard around campus but also experienced. One of the most recent things is something which happened to my friend. An elected member of a student organization treated my friend quite poorly because he’s gay. The Student Body President was there and did nothing about it.
What makes matters worse was this individual was allowed to retain his position and only go through what one could consider a remedial tolerance course. I do not fault my friend for not pursuing the matter further albeit my disappointment and frustration. To date, I know of nothing further coming from this incident.
On various occasions people have felt like they had an open invite in my personal business. Whatever may have led them to believe that is incorrect. No one has the right to question another person just because they do not fit into society’s or that own individual’s mold. With that being said I have decided to release one particular incident of something that happened to me.
This particular thing happened after I was getting ready to cross the second bridge to walk past the Clubhouse. To get to the bridge I had to pass two girls. It was after I passed these two girls that they started laughing. I knew it was directed at me because they had not been laughing prior. I know that instead of turning around and confronting them I just went to my apartment.
It has become my personal opinion that far too often things happen and we do not do anything about it. Well the time has come I believe that we need to stop and do two things. First, we need to stop going after people no matter the reason. Second, when we see discrimination we need to stop and do something about it.
I do not know how aware the IPFW Community is but IPFW has a Zero Tolerance Policy concerning discrimination in any form. I would invite Students to read the “Code of Student Rights, Responsibilities, and Conduct” contained with the Student Planner. Similar policies exist as Purdue Memorandums affecting IPFW Staff.
