Safe Zone campaign should be respected

What are the College Republicans doing parodying Safe Zone? The Safe Zone campaign, initiated by the UR Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Alliance, is a very real and very necessary project to help people who are transitioning into non-mainstream sexual culture. The people it is designed to protect are routinely the victims of harassment and hate crimes and who have oftentimes been unable to completely express themselves to their friends and families for the first 18 years of their lives. The Safe Zone campaign originated as a grassroots project to organize safe spaces for people struggling with gender and sexual identity. The campaign has literally saved countless lives and is no laughing matter. Do you know what makes me angry about the perversion of free speech? If you want to say something offensive and stupid and make everyone uncomfortable, I will fight tooth and nail to protect your speech, but you better sit still when I call you a racist or an idiot. That’s the way real free speech works – you want to pull a stunt that makes minorities uncomfortable and completely misrepresents affirmative action? Great! Now deal with everyone else exercising his or her speech.-Jennifer n. SmithClass of 2004



Letters to the Editor

URochester’s annual Senior Week always features a full lineup of celebrations for the graduates leading up to Commencement. The contemporary week-long fun is deeply embedded in the history of URochester culture, even though Senior Week and Commencement traditions have changed dramatically over time. Read More

Letters to the Editor

Through a live demonstration and tasting, Chef Dede prepared fried chicken, baked macaroni and cheese, and collard greens – dishes rooted in Black Southern history. Students leaned in as she explained the methods and care that go into each plate. Read More

Letters to the Editor

The first realization of my own age hit me in the months before I started college. I was helping my dad clean the small office he’d occupied in Rush Rhees longer than I’d been alive. The walls of which boasted childhood drawings that my sister and I had crayoned. Even though I was looking at my distant past, I realized I would soon be starting a new page of my future. Read More