Roberto Alonso, Joseline Cano, Sabrina Henderson, Crystal Medrano
Design Editor, Features Editor, Social Media Editor, News Editor
Dear Dominican,
As we, the editors, prepare for this very issue, we realized there is a common theme amongst the students of Dominican University.
From student workers, to student athletes, to student organizations, residents, commuters and more, voices are being suppressed.
Dominican promises to be a safe place, where students can have different opinions without persecution or punishment. However, we have students afraid to speak up against higher authority for fear of either losing their student worker-jobs, being kicked off a sport, or being persecuted. The “Dominican Silence” will continue if we allow this suppression to stay.
This idea of the “Dominican Silence” is the understanding among faculty and staff that as a student population, we don’t talk. During class discussions to encourage healthy discussions, students don’t share their opinion and that is a norm that has deep and systematic underlying problems.
This ironic sense of oppression created by school officials causes students to want to stay anonymous and stay in a bubble of ‘perfection.’
Often, surveys are given to students as a way to bridge the gap between students’thoughtsandadministrations, but surveys do not tell the whole story of student experiences with the school. We question what happens with those surveys? Whatdo they do with that information? With this in mind, we urge students to speak up against the issues they find problematic and urge faculty to not fall into the norm of student voice oppression. Be as inclusive as possible because the underlying problem is that this is subconscious. The Star prides itself as an open forum for the entire community to share their voice and we find it our duty to encourage such discussions.
