December 5, 2002

To the UW-Madison Student Community:

I am deeply honored by the Badger Herald editorial board’s invitation to submit a guest editorial. I look forward to communicating with you — the constituents whom I serve — through the student media in the coming months and years. I was originally asked by the editors to describe what I believe the dean of students position represents as well as my plan for achieving that ideal.

I will attempt to begin answering this question — for this requires a more extensive, ongoing dialogue — but in light of recent controversy surrounding the cancellation and reinstatement of the ASM-initiated “Shadow Day,” I thought it important also to share my thoughts on this issue.

I realize that among students there were differing views regarding the need for Shadow Day, a pilot program that was intended to convey a message to prospective students in Madison- and Milwaukee-area high schools that individuals of all identities, including students of color and LGBT students, are welcomed and supported here at UW-Madison.

That this initiative was conceptualized and proposed by students who identified a need and sought a strategy to mitigate it is what is most laudable about Shadow Day. At this point, plans are underway for Shadow Day to take place in the spring semester, and ASM student planners and administrators from the division of student affairs are moving forward together on this project with a renewed spirit of collaboration and cooperation.

One thing is for sure: Shadow Day has been a vital catalyst for a critical dialogue that has long needed to take place. There is no doubt that many in the LGBT community and their allies were hurt by the events surrounding Shadow Day. This episode has certainly helped all of us learn the importance of sitting down together to clarify misunderstandings and explore creative win-win solutions before making a decision that has such a profound effect on so many.

My role as dean of students is both a professional and a personal one; that is, I cannot divorce the values and responsibilities inherent with being the dean from the beliefs and everyday choices I make as a person. My life would be infinitely less complicated and proliferated with much more leisure time were I not a dean, but I became one because I am an educator who loves helping students succeed and because I am a humanist who strives for positive change.

According to the evolving document which is the dean of students office mission statement, the DOS staff is charged to provide “programs and services designed to facilitate the holistic learning, development and empowerment of all undergraduate and graduate students at UW-Madison, as well as support and lead collaborative efforts to foster a more healthful, multicultural and respectful campus community.”

I am fully committed to ensuring that the explicit and implicit message we send is that all students, including LGBT students, are valued and important to this campus. I also realize that experiencing a sense of inclusion (or lack thereof) encompasses more than simply the demographics of whether or not members of one’s identity group are underrepresented, adequately represented or even over-represented on campus.

Ultimately, climate is not about numbers but about feelings — feeling wanted, feeling needed, feeling empowered. So while we can fiddle with the relative ratios of who is on this campus, the harder work (and real work in my mind) lies in changing how we treat each other. Do we truly listen to each other, even when we disagree? Do we acknowledge our shared humanity, even if we happen not to like each other? Are we inviting to the decision-making table those who historically or typically haven’t been given a seat?

I believe that as an institution of higher learning, we have an ethical and moral responsibility to ensure equal opportunity and promote multiculturalism (which I define broadly to encompass culture derived on the basis of gender, race/ethnicity, sexual orientation, disability, nationality, socioeconomic status, religion, age, etc.) even when such efforts are not externally mandated.

Furthermore, as the UW-Madison in service of the “Wisconsin Idea,” it is imperative that we provide leadership to our state, to our country, and to our world in this area. However, the path to realizing our institutional goals with regard to diversity is not an easy nor direct one. In my own experiences as a social justice activist, the process of change necessarily involves iterative cycles: we may take some proverbial steps backwards yet our overall direction can still be forward moving.

I can assure you that the dean of students office and that I as the dean will make mistakes at some point in the future; I ask in advance for your patience and forgiveness as we take risks and work earnestly towards achieving a truly inclusive campus community in which the power to shape our common future is shared among individuals of all backgrounds and identities.

Luoluo Hong

Dean of students