In recent years, my alma mater has given me far too little to be proud of. The latest black eye came when I read student Chris Uihlein's brave, yet terribly disappointing, letter in Tuesday's edition of The Post. For being secure in his identity as a gay man and for showing a willingness to reach out and become a more active member of the Ohio University community, he was rewarded with blatant homophobia that has no place at a university that likes to pride itself for its climate of diversity.
Suppose, for a moment, that Uihlein wasn't gay, but was an African American male who, upon signing up for a triple, began to hear excuse after excuse from his would-be roommates. What would we think if, after repeated efforts to build a rapport, the student was told, We were just trying to be nice; we both just feel really uncomfortable living with a black person? Or if their Facebook statuses stated that X is a racist at 8:58 p.m. or that X hates niggers at 9:21 p.m.?
We'd be rightly outraged, just as we should be ' and many are ' in this case. I'm sure the two students, in the above scenario, would face disciplinary action, just as one student did last June for his racially-motivated verbal attack on two women at Alden Library. That student was expelled and, upon hearing the news, President McDavis told The Post that This is something we simply do not tolerate on our campus
now or ever.
What happened to Uihlein shouldn't be tolerated, either. And if my alma mater is so intent on fostering a climate of diversity, it must not back down in the ugly face of discrimination based on one's sexual orientation. Uihlein, it's clear, has far more courage and character than his would-be roommates, who deserve to be outed and punished for their disgraceful behavior. They don't belong at OU.
Joseph Hughes is a 2001 and 2003 graduate of Ohio University.
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