The need for more than mere tolerance

To the Editor:

Strange, foreign, unfamiliar: scary. The recent moral debate over housing between the Yale administration and its Orthodox Jewish students perpetuates the dilemma of diversity. Different generations of different cultures find different answers, some of which have been genocide, slavery, and persecution. Discrimination is often the mode of choice, but more recently tolerance seems to be the fashion, and also the case here.

The problem on the Yale campus is that the administration and these Jewish students have tired of tolerating each other. What then will ensue? How will they resolve this controversy?

If the students' primary concern is the living situation, education becomes secondary. This must not happen; it defeats the purpose of their enrollment as well as the mission of the school. The administration should keep its requirement of residential living for all first and second-year undergraduates, as it is essential to the Yale learning experience. However, in order to establish an environment for them which is conducive to learning, the university officials must accommodate these Jewish students and all other students. For their part, the students need to comply with the requirement and live in a scholarly community of their colleagues.

Compromise is possible without sacrifice of the principles or the beliefs of either party, but certain steps must be taken to ensure this. The administration must offer options in residential living, such as the following: single-sex floors which are truly single-sex floors, where the members of the opposite sex are not present and do not sleep; drug and alcohol-free floors; floors for those with certain health problems; alternatives to meat in the cafeteria; and matzoh on holy days. It needs to reevaluate and strengthen the R.A. program, giving more authority to the advisors. The students should work to combat the problems with the campus by being on the campus, rather than running away. In an effort to educate others, they should assert their beliefs but also listen to the ideas of their classmates in order to learn from them. By maintaining those beliefs and not conforming to the masses while living with them, the students will only strengthen their own convictions. They should also form interest groups to provide an outlet for identity and a means for support.

The controversy on campus could be resolved if all parties adopted attitudes of acceptance rather than tolerance, that is, if they were to embrace diversity rather than merely put up with it. For instance, "nondenominational" should connotate every religion rather than no religion. Lifestyles are varied, but that does not mean that one is better, more correct or more moral than another. It is a matter of personal belief and opinion. And ultimately, it is a matter of respect.

--Lisa Nass, Washington, D.C.

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