Bench, bridge incidents raise questions

Just this past weekend, the Giles bench on East Campus was vandalized: A homophobic epithet was spray-painted on the bench. About a week ago, the Feminist Majority painted a thoughtful question aimed to provoke constructive dialogue in the community. They painted, "Do you accept the status quo?" on the East Campus bridge. In response, someone drew a large penis over the message and wrote, "make me a sandwich."

We, concerned members of the Duke community, are deeply saddened and appalled by such actions. These acts not only damage the sense of community we prize so highly here at Duke, but also reinforce the message that not all students are equal. It is disturbing that such a flagrant level of disrespect and ignorance pervade this campus.

If you did not know about these incidents, now you do. We hope that awareness of these events will spark constructive and active conversation. How open and accepting are we as a campus? What does it mean to be a Duke student?

We also want to encourage active engagement. The degrading message toward women was left on the East Campus bridge for at least three days. Why did we allow such a message to just sit there? This question is all-inclusive and addressed to Duke University as a whole.

We must seriously re-examine our commitment to making Duke not just safer, but a true community.

Michelle Sohn

Baldwin Scholar

Trinity '11