Yesterday, the Latinx Student Alliance released an open letter requesting that the University do a better job recognizing the needs of Latinx students, who now make up 6% of the University population. In this letter, signed by dozens of CIOs on Grounds, the Alliance claimed that “our community has been underrepresented and undeserved for far too long. It is our time to be heard.” Jennifer Flores, chair of the Latinx Peer Mentoring Program, had this to say. Sadly, even though the Latinx Student Alliance is pushing for equality on Grounds, the 2017 Unite the Right rally is in the news again. Over the past year, the Federal Government has contracted private security guards to guard Confederate cemeteries in response to the violence in Charlottesville last year surrounding a statue of Robert E. Lee. The Department of Veterans Affairs has spent almost 3 million dollars on these measures since August of last year, with 1.6 million in spending planned for fiscal year 2019. Jessica Schiefer, a VA spokeswoman, stated that the actions were necessary to “to ensure the safety of staff, property and visitors paying respect to those interred”. I guess we’re going to have to get used to hearing about the aftermath of August 11 and 12 for a long time to come.
