To the Editor:
Within the past week there have been a number of opinion articles in The Dartmouth relating to the incident which occurred on Psi Upsilon's lawn over a week ago. As the President of Psi Upsilon Fraternity, I first wish to once again extend my apologies to the entire campus for the pain and hurt this incident has caused. I also want to continue to encourage members of the community to constructively express their feelings so that this incident may be used as an opportunity to bring about positive change within the Greek system and throughout the entire campus. Yesterday's opinion article piece entitled "Deeds, Not Just Words" by Liam Kuhn '02, however, was neither constructive nor justified in its attack on the entire brotherhood of Psi Upsilon.
Although I encourage Liam to share his opinions, I do not support the way in which he labeled and judged an entire organization based on the actions of a few individuals. He certainly has the right to be upset and angry. He does not have the right to ignorantly label Psi Upsilon as a racist and misogynistic organization. Furthermore, his irresponsible use of vindictive stereotypes only moves the entire community backwards as constructive debate descends into childish name-calling.
The incident that occurred on the lawn of Psi U was embarrassing, hurtful and upsetting. In no way, however, was it a reflection or a representation of Psi Upsilon fraternity or what the organization stands for. I ask the members of this community, including Liam Kuhn, to be constructive in their dialogue and refrain from blanket statements and all-encompassing judgments. As unfortunate as these events were, they are not a problem faced only by Psi Upsilon but by many other Greek and minority organizations on campus. The greater travesty would be for us to fail to move forward in this discussion and fail to address the important issues raised by this event -- not as just individual Greek houses or minority organizations, but as students of Dartmouth College.
