Top 10 ways for the university to let queer students know they're not welcome:
10.University adopts \Smear the Queer"" as official NCAA sponsored athletic event.
9. Honorary UW Doctorates stripped from Boy George, Ellen Degeneres and Elton John.
8. Bucky mascot encouraged to ""butch up"" with addition of six pack and ""No fat Chicks T-shirt"" along with an admonition to stop flirting with Minnesota Gopher.
7. Cheerleading team's weekly ""Baby-doll-nightie pillow-fight sleep-over parties"" banned.
6. Students in dining hall now required to sit boy-girl-boy-girl.
5. Freshman males now bond during SOAR by killing a deer, eating it raw. Freshman females spend week demonstrating womanly skills such as needlepoint, fellatio and the creation of elaborate Jello molds
4. Students from California no longer allowed to enroll.
3. NAT-at-night gay bathhouse finally shut down.
2. Purple Teletubby Tinky Winky's application to sit on Board of Regents rejected.
1. University refuses funding to ""Shadow Day.""
What is Shadow Day?
According to a report in this paper, it is ""a program designed to give high school students of color and lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender students the opportunity to spend a day with a UW-Madison student.""
Why should the university endorse and fund such a day?
Because Plan 2008, UW's initiative to increase diversity on campus vowed to include other groups who ""experience discrimination and exclusion includ[ing] women in some fields; lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender persons; and disabled persons"" along with those from the four targeted racial groups.
The steering committee of Plan 2008 also went so far as to stipulate that this plan should promote ""an improved campus climate and a deeper understanding of the situations of those groups"" and stated it ""recommend[s] that the campus treat their recommendations with the same seriousness as those in this plan.""
Surely, they would not include the queer community in this list of groups unless they felt it was also underrepresented on campus. There is no quantification necessary to prove this point. A more diverse campus is a benefit to all. Encouraging queer high school students to attend UW-Madison is the right thing to do and a smart thing for the administration to support.
All of our students have something to gain when the university stands up for diversity, be it sexual, racial or otherwise. All students deserve to live in a diverse community that allows students to investigate their options and to confront racism, sexism and homophobia head on. A diverse student population makes this much more possible.
It's time we hold this committee responsible for implementing Plan 2008. It should be noted that this committee contained representatives from the student body and alumni.
In the study of sexuality, we have known since the '70s that it's wrong to discriminate against queers. The university has now changed its mind; however, it justified its original decision by stating that other communities might look at these issues ""differently.""
We here in Madison do not subscribe to some form of ""political correctness""--we simply realize that discrimination against any group of students is abhorrent in any political climate. Our campus needs queer students; the few queer students we do have need our support; and the university needs to get over itself.
