Letters to the Editor

GLBT youth in need of allies

Your article titled “Research Suggests Indiana high schools are not safe for GLBT students” brings attention to homophobia as a social health problem that exists nationally.

The IDS suggests school administrators should be held responsible for fostering a hostile environment for GLBT youth, but does not indicate what school administrations should do and seems to limit social change to the acceptance of difference.

While raising public consciousness about social inequality is necessary, we were disappointed to read that “no one is an ally in these schools because they are scared.” What are potential allies afraid of? They are not being forced to enter an environment where one is expected to achieve, despite being humiliated, unsupported, unsafe, silenced and invisible.

The safety of GLBT youth in school is not solely the responsibility of administration, but ought to be a community-wide endeavor that involves the adults and youth. 

We hope this letter serves as a call to action for other youth-serving organizations to rally together to educate adults and support potential allies within and out-of-school settings.

Like the author, we suggest policy changes both at the legislative level and within the schools; however, if potential allies within schools are fearful, policy change is not a feasible goal.

Community accountability measures need to be put into place to support not only students, but also potential allies. Perhaps a confidential inter-school, inter-county meeting should occur to identify potential allies, discuss fears, ascertain consequences for involvement with GLBT youth and set goals for our Indiana schools.

Several staff at Middle Way House, Inc. have specialized training in GLBT issues, and our “Building Healthy Relationships” program offers train-the-mentor workshops to interested organizations and individuals.

We invite potential allies of GLBT youth within Indiana schools to contact us confidentially and anonymously at mwh.ppc@gmail.com. 

We would like to suggest a much-needed discussion about how we can work together to heal our community. And also foster a healthy learning environment for all youth, and would be happy to facilitate such a meeting.
 
— Cierra Olivia Thomas-Williams

Higher education: more than just a future paycheck

The IDS devoted the cover of its last edition of the summer to a story titled: “As tuition bills pile high, students ask the question, is college worth it?”

Reading it, I was reminded of the old quip about the business person who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing. Your story never deviated from the assumption that the only way to value higher education is to calculate how much it increases a graduate’s life-long earnings. This is not surprising. Overwhelmingly, the messages high school and college students receive encourage this unexamined assumption.

Parents, high school counselors, even some in the university promote a college education as an “investment” that leads to a lucrative career. There are other, better objectives for a college education: learning to think critically; learning to articulate one’s thoughts in speech and writing; understanding one’s place in history; participating in the ongoing conversation of civilization; appreciating the visual arts, literature and music; creating one’s own music, literature and art; confronting the claims of citizenship in a pluralistic democracy; encountering other cultures, societies and ethnic groups; developing one’s own moral and ethical values, distinct from those inherited from family and religion; learning to become one’s own teacher and launching a trajectory of life-long learning; finding a calling instead of a career.

The greatest value higher education offers is the opportunity to develop one’s full potential as a human being — not at all the same as calculating a paycheck.

— Claude Cookman

Plight of students’ tuition

I woke up this morning exhausted from Welcome Week but thoroughly excited to start my new semester of classes. Before my first class started, I sat in the back reading the “welcome back” edition of the IDS and I was very disturbed by what I read. 

On page A6, two headlines caught my attention as an injustice and a travesty. “IU President Michael McRobbie gets pay raise for 2011-12 academic year” and “IU Board of Trustees approves 5.5 percent tuition, fee increase” highlight the problem with higher education across this country.

Students are being marginalized by new waves of tuition and fee increases while the people at the top are profiting even more. This decision by the IU Board of Trustees comes not too long after the U.S. Congress passed the budget deal which cuts funding for many education programs. The university system, U.S. government and all U.S. citizens need to recognize that education will determine the future of this country and the outcome will not be in our favor if the students are entering the workforce with student debt that burdens them for the next ten to 20 years.

So please, IU Board of Trustees, please do not increase revenue on the backs of students while giving more money to those who don’t need it.

— Joseph Klatt