<p>calgal: Why are you suggesting that the campus be whitewashed for potential students? Why shouldn’t the tour guides be representative of the diversity of the student body? One of the things I appreciate most about Wesleyan is its commitment to diversity - not as a catchphrase and not as an obsession with maintaining the “correct” percentage of African-American students in the incoming class, but as an actual value in itself. People are different, and Wesleyan isn’t about molding students into the perfect pre-professional. It’s about giving students the tools to be the best they can be - whatever that is. We have students who go to great med schools and law schools and are successful in Hollywood and we’re glad all of them are Wes alums - but we also have Tristan Taormino, a successful feminist pornographer, and Jean Pockrus '08, who was recently featured on the Tyra Banks show to talk about hir freegan lifestyle (i.e. dumpster diving and all that).</p>
<p>You mention gender and discuss “ze” as though it’s a completely ridiculous thing to have. But you know what? Transgendered and genderqueer individuals deserve to have a place where they feel safe and comfortable. In fact, one of my closest high school friends went to Tufts and is genderqueer, but never came out to anyone but hir closest friends at Tufts because ze was worried it was so unacceptable, even in the gay&lesbian support group. That’s not something to be proud of, IMO. Yes, that kind of more mainstream thing is good for some people - but it should be understood that at Wesleyan, for the most part, we view acceptance as a GOOD thing. Someone can not identify with the traditional gender binary of man/woman and still not have to worry about how in the world they’re supposed to represent hir gender on an admissions sign-in sheet. Someone can not identify with the traditional gender binary and still go to the bathroom in a public building without feeling unwelcome. How in the world is this a bad thing?</p>
<p>Some people at Wesleyan have mohawks. The vast majority don’t. The admissions office here would, I think, never deny someone a position as a tour guide just because of their hair styling choice. If someone is offended by that lack of discrimination, probably Wesleyan isn’t the school for them - this isn’t the school to be at if you’re pro-discrimination, even in its milder forms, such as this particular example.</p>