Letter to the Editor

Dear Luther College,

We’d like to make the Luther community aware of two different campus issues that seem different on the surface but have the same root cause.

The first is with the removal of trays in the cafeteria. We attended the forum November 13, at which students were given the chance to voice their opinions regarding the removal of caf trays. However, just because students were given the chance to voice their opinions didn’t mean that those voices had any impact on the final decision. The basic tone of the meeting was “we’re going to remove the trays whether or not you think it’s a good idea, but we’d like you to get on board with this.”

The other issue has to do with the bathrooms in our Farwell cluster. At the start of the year, we set out to create gender neutral bathrooms. When we discovered that this was problematic for some people in our cluster we then suggested a rotating sign which would allow a person to decide the nature of the bathroom upon entering. This new idea is something that everyone in our cluster has been able to agree upon; however, the administration won’t allow it. Our problem is not simply that it hasn’t been allowed, but also the treatment we have received throughout the process. We have been treated like children who just want their own way while the administration seems to put themselves in the position of the adult who knows what’s best for us, regardless of the fact that the level of work we have put into this shows that we’re mature, responsible adults.

The connection between these two issues is the administration’s view of students. While Luther clearly exists for students, the perspective of students doesn’t seem to be taken seriously into consideration when it comes to decision-making. We are constantly being encouraged to take what we’re learning in the classroom and putting it into action, yet when it comes to actually following through on this and being active in voicing our opinions in efforts to engender change, it seems that the college does not actually want us to create change.

We would like to see a Luther where students really can connect their in-class learning with their out-of-class experiences, and we hope that’s something the Luther administration can help us achieve.

- Emily Ewing (‘09) and Stefanie Boren (‘09)