FOLLOWING IS A LETTER TO THE COMMUNITY FROM
IOWA STATE UNIVERSITY PRESIDENT MARTIN C. JISCHKE:
October 20, 1996
To the Community:
One of the most treasured aspects of a university campus is the
freedom each of us has to
freely and openly express our opinions and ideas--and to do so in an
environment of civility and
mutual respect. I'm becoming increasingly concerned that the current debate
over the name of
Carrie Chapman Catt Hall is causing a strain on this environment, and I
believe we need to be
reminded about just how important it is to do all we can to maintain this
very special environment.
Several recent occurrences have caused me this concern. Handbills
have been posted that
are intended to be racially demeaning. There were attempts to disrupt a
peaceful protest over the
name of Catt Hall and abusive remarks were directed toward students involved
in the protest.
Threatening telephone calls have been made to individuals who have openly
expressed their
support for keeping the name of the building. And most recently, there was
an assault on an
African American student security officer by a group of individuals, an
assault that included racial
slurs.
I cherish our First Amendment freedom of speech rights, including
the right to speech that
is neither pleasant nor supportive in order to protect all speech. At the
same time, however, I
believe we, as members of this university community, have a responsibility
to avoid speech and
actions that are intended to make other members of our community feel
threatened or less welcome
on our campus simply because they express a different opinion or position.
I am calling on all members of the ISU community to affirm their
commitment to free and
open expression, to the rights of all of us to hold disparate views, and to
helping make our
community one of tolerance and civility. Open discussion and debate is
important and valuable; I
hope there are many such activities on many more topics. But those
discussions and debates
should remain civil and should demonstrate tolerance for all points of view
for all individuals
involved.
Sincerely,
Martin C. Jischke
President
Diana Pounds, University Relations, dpounds@iastate.edu
Iowa State homepage
Copyright © 1996, Iowa State University, all rights reserved
URL: http://www.public.iastate.edu/~nscentral/releases/tolerance.html
Revised
10/21/96