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Give Tamrat a break
 Mike Lauterbach
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SCSU, despite some recent steps to the contrary, has not always been forthcoming with information on adverse conditions for anyone at this university. It's tough to blame them � after all, no one expects the administration to be a neutral, unbiased source of information on itself. SCSU's administration is in the business of attracting students, and to do so they paint the rosiest picture they can. This is as it should be.
Putting the whole story together falls to the press and the individual. Tademe & Co.'s opinion that black students should think twice about attending SCSU (the only thing that got any attention) make up only a few lines of the letter. The rest is informational � the details of specific incidents of racism mixed here and there with the professors' personal experiences. What the professors have done is essentially what any journalist does � gathering facts and putting them together into a pattern.
St. Cloud can be a difficult place for students of color. Prejudice does exist, and simple fairness dictates that students be warned about it before committing their time and money here. Diversity at SCSU is not important enough to warrant stifling speech that may not encourage it. It's a noble goal, no doubt, but diversity is not more valuable than students' right to all the information they need in choosing a college.
As for the forum, this is not the first time Tademe & Co. have argued the points in the letter. This was simply another way of getting out the information, not a stab in the back. Personal letters to guidance counselors and the like were the best possible way to reach prospective students. Had the letter been published in a newspaper, for example, it would have reached less of its intended audience and could have been more damaging to the university.
Academic freedom is one of the most important traditions in higher education, and this letter is an example of it. SCSU is not a company, where disagreement with the boss is a sin to be punished. It is (or should be) a true free market of ideas. The sacred status of programs like diversity must not overrule that freedom.
Mike Lauterbach can be reached at: [email protected]
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