Intolerance among the university’s highest honor was seen in the Iron Arrow inductions last Thursday, which happened to coincide with the Marriages on the Rock. The Inductions finished about halfway through the marriages, but some members were still by the Rock by the time University Chaplain Father Frank made his speech supporting marriage equality. About halfway through his speech, I noticed two members of Iron Arrow walking by.
One of them stopped long enough to say that the speaker was “out of his mind” and make a flagrant gesture shooing the speaker’s words away from herself. Behavior like this is annual, almost traditional, at this galvanizing event like Marriages on the Rock. I firmly believe in the freedom of speech, but I also believe in accountability.
How can the Iron Arrow society which prides itself on love of alma mater, character, leadership, scholarship, and humility have members that publicly disgrace another organization of the alma mater as well as a university chaplain? Where is the love of alma mater, leadership, and humility? This behavior is more akin to humiliation. If this is what leaders at the university are thinking and saying, what does that say about the rest of the UM community?
Raymond Mathews
Vice President of spectrUM
Junior