(current picture on Denison's homepage...creatively encouraging tolerance?)

The days are escaping me. I was in disbelief when I looked at my alarm clock this morning to see November 10th staring back at me! Mixed feelings accompany this point in the semester. As of today, I am extremely relieved because yesterday I took my Croatian final by storm and celebrated by doing absolutely nothing productive the rest of the day. Along with these feelings of relief, however, comes panic. I have approximately two days to solidify my independent study project before I move to Belgrade. This means I must find an advisor, individuals I need to interview, and complete a review of the current literature on the subject (and the list goes on) by Monday! I am also slightly skeptical about living in a hostel for a month, in which my room is the size of my current closet and I will be sharing it with two other people. The program puts us on an extremely tight budget, $25 a day for food, transportation, and housing. This should be an adventure to say the least.

This unease I experience which stems my experiences here, however, is miniscule compared to my fear of returning to Denison. And do not get me wrong, I miss my family and friends to the point of tears, but I must admit, this semester has brought with it a generous dose of escapism. There has been a sequence of terrible hate crimes going on at Denison. An email from a close friend of mine reads as follows:

(Describing what is happening on campus) people being beat up behind Swasey, people being called nigger as they walk through campus or Granville, bottles being thrown, girls getting raped and faggot being graffitied on people's doors… Today a swastika was put under black RA’a door. Under it saying "stop causing trouble". I just, didn’t believe it at first. That something like this is going on at Denison, on this campus. This hate being perpetuated. Can you imagine waking up to that? So many people , black white whatever feel unsafe and threatened on campus. Like a swastika...really? I mean the noose poster could and very well was an ignorant mistake but a deliberate printing out and distributing of hate toward another person just baffles my mind… So I don’t know what's going to happen now. I mean I just don’t know. no one knows who did it and so I don’t know.

And an excerpt from a letter from the president:

Over the last several weeks, a number of Denison students have reported experiences both recent and recurring over a longer period that interfere with their ability to get the most out of their Denison education and that offend our community values which respect the worth and dignity of all persons. In some cases, these were affronts that had the effect of diminishing men and women on account of their race. In other cases, they were affronts that had the effect of diminishing persons on account of their sexual orientation. Still other students have shared their discomfiture with continuing acts of vandalism that show disrespect for the learning and living environments that all women and men on campus should be able to enjoy.

Denison even got a shout out on the O’Reilly factor because of these events, and is being discussed in regional publications. As a school of a little more than 2,000 students, I am ashamed that this is what brings us into the national spotlight.

At Denison I am the chair of the sexual harassment and rape program, an active member of Women’s Emphasis, and the Student director of the Women’s resource center (although I have a proxy currently serving). Additionally I am the fellow of the Women’s studies and Sociology departments, the two directing the most focus and energy toward these events. Last semester I had been holding meetings attended by Denison student’s in leadership positions, faculty, and staff, during which we addressed issues related to harassment, rape, and sexual violence. It seemed that we were actually making progress through our dialogue. I cannot help but feeling like I am jumping into boiling water when I return to Denison. It is inevitable that many students and staff will expect me to directly address these issues in a significant way. While I am in love with Eastern Europe and the communities I am researching and partnering with, maybe, just maybe, I am meant to return home because of the very issues I dread confronting.

I have become so caught up in watching the Kosova/Serbia question, that I have easily been distracted from the issues impacting my own home, which despite being on a smaller scale, are still a demonstration of the dark side of power. I promise my next blog will talk more of my balkonesque adventures, but I think that Denison’s current climate of hate is deserving of space. Please keep my campus in your thoughts and prayers.

For more information regarding these incidences at Denison, as well as the campus response:

http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2007/11/08/denison.ART_ART_11-08-07_A1_0Q8DK59.html?sid=101
http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2007/11/08/denison.html

http://www.columbusdispatch.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2007/11/09/Denison2..ART_ART_11-09-07_B1_378DU4E.html?sid=101

http://invinciblearmor.blogspot.com/2007/11/big-stink-at-denison-university-aint.html