Letter to the editor: Michael Holman

Posted on May 5 2017 - 8:00am by Michael Holman

I was saddened and embarrassed to see our ASB Senate pass a resolution to suspend the Chancellor’s context committee. This poorly reasoned proposal is both ill advised and logically infantile for countless reasons.

The stated problem with the committee, lack of student representation, is an absurd objection. The committee is staffed with scholars, experts in fields of history and sociology and others. Their goal is not a political one but a historical one.

Their proposals are aimed at more accurately representing the history of our university, and the Chancellor has chosen people who have the experience to know what is accurate.

What student is qualified to sit on the committee? I hope this bill’s proponents would not suggest any members of, say, the Our State Flag foundation, whose historical expertise does not extend beyond the headlines pulled up by their Google searches and whose sponsored Facebook post is rife with misspellings, poor capitalization, and grammar problems.

Why should undergraduate students who struggle to write three paragraphs without misspelling Chancellor Vitter’s name be placed on a panel of experts?

As for the unspoken sentiments of our newly elected Senate, I can only speculate at how it must feel for one’s political opinions to be threatened by greater accessibility of facts. I personally would suggest thinking about history in a way that fits what happened in the 1860s, not what fits the white-washed tragedy written in the early twentieth century.
If historical facts are too painful of a trigger for our senators, I would recommend just ignoring any new information. It has worked for them so far.
Michael Holman is a senior English major from Kosciusko.