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The Spectator
Letters to the Editor
October 30, 2009Students lack mutual respect
On Oct. 21, I experienced a disrespectful and embarrassing event. A wallet was thrown at my head in the library. I have never felt so alone in what is supposed to be a public and safe place. The library's Couper room was full of students. No one did or said anything during or after the incident.
I had been talking on the phone too loudly, but instead of someone asking me to quiet down, a student decided to throw his wallet directed at my head. Startled by the crash as it hit the wall in front of me, I turned around trying to figure out what had happened. In complete shock, I asked him if he had thrown the wallet at me. He sarcastically responded, "I was actually throwing it at the wall, not your head. You were talking too loud." After explaining that he could have just asked instead of throwing something at me, he shrugged and replied, "Well, I'm going to get my wallet now."
Many thoughts flooded my mind as I listened to his trivial responses. "Should I throw the wallet back at him? Keep it? Yell at him for his unacceptable and immature behavior?" I responded by saying, "NO, let ME hand it to you." In part, I reacted that way because I was intimidated. Another part of me also felt that I needed to hold back my reaction for not wanting to be perceived as unmannered, "loud" or "hood." Another part of me did not want the situation to escalate.
I wish that was the end of the incident. However, after feeling flustered, I explained to my friend on the phone what occurred quietly, finishing up my conversation. Then, another male student began yelling at me saying that he was trying to study, I was driving everyone crazy, demanded that I hang up the phone and walked away. If the first student had not thrown his wallet at me, would the other male student have felt as comfortable yelling at me? Honestly, no one has ever spoken to me in such a condescending way in my two plus years at Hamilton. After the incident, I felt embarrassed, ridiculed, attacked, disrespected, hurt, uncomfortable and unwelcome.
I had to ask myself, why me? I'm not the only person who's ever spoken too loudly in the library. Was it because I was a woman and he felt he could get away with it? If I were some big guy, 6-feet, 280 lbs; would he have thrown his wallet? Do race and/or ethnicity play a role? I'm not saying it was racially motivated, at least not consciously; I am asking why did he feel that it was OK to throw something at me and assume there would be no consequences. How can we say that ethnicity and gender do not affect our daily interactions? These are identity markers that too often get ignored; however, they are simply too important to dismiss. One thing is for certain, we as a Hamilton community do not show respect and basic human decency toward one another.
This is a place where we as students live and are part of a community. We are all adults; no one should receive treatment that belittles or demeans them as a person. I hope we will think twice about our words and actions. After all, "all I'm askin' is for a little respect!"
Let's make Hamilton a community where we all feel safe and respected.
- Hannah Roth '11
Rationale For Student Assembly Funding, from SA Treasurer
I would like to take this opportunity to explain the Student Assembly's current financial situation, and how we came to this point.
The Funding Committee and I recently determined that we have allocated the maximum amount of funding we can for this semester. This is because we received a increased number of large, semester-long budget proposals early on in the year. Our policy is to give priority to groups that are well organized and submit their proposals first, so we funded these proposals as they came in. This semester was exceptional because of the increased number of organizations coming to the Assembly for funding, which taxed our already limited budget.
I would also like to apologize to those organizations that had been planing to request funding in the upcoming weeks, or to those that failed to receive funding because of problems with their proposal. When making plans for next semester, I urge you all to remember to fill out the forms completely, and to make the important information (costs, dates, importance of the event) as clear as possible.
While I am not pleased that we will be unable to fund any more student organizations until next semester, I am proud of the work that The Funding Committee has done.
Throughout the remainder of the semester, our committee will continue to meet, to follow up with student organizations and to examine our funding strategy. The funding process is always being improved, and we will continue working towards a more perfect system.
Sincerely yours,
Jake Lacy