Changes

''The following has been sent to the Anchors Away listserve. It in no way necessarily reflects the opinions of the aforementioned, nor does it reflect the opinions of the poster of the letter:'' ''The following letter was sent on November 29th, 2005. No response has been received to date.''

I am the person who put up the posters around campus quoting membersof the administration and of the CUL. I desire to remain anonymousbecause I am not sure that it is safe to speak up against anchorsanymore. (In the interest of protecting the innocent, I should pointout that I am not prominently involved in the anchor housing debate.)

The posters are not really about anchor housing, however, but aboutthe way you "grown-ups in Hopkins Hall" think of the student body.You don't think that we are competent to choose what kind of housingplan Williams will have in the future.

You don't feel that we are socially skilled enough to form intodiverse, close-knit social groups without outside help.

You don't worry yourselves much about the possibility of a studentdying of alcohol poisoning, even though Williams obviously has aserious problem.

The CUL has, however, worried enough about the name of the new systemto change it twice.

It doesn't matter what the plan calls for anymore. Do you rememberwhen student involvement was considered essential for its success?The plan is now so contaminated with disrespect for the student bodythat nothing can save it from its unpopularity. Hopefully, studentdiscontent will tear it apart from the inside quickly, rather thanallow it to die a slow, painful, death of apathy and cynicism.

Professor Dudley says, "We don't plan to revisit the big pictureissues." In other words, it's too late in the game to change theplan. We students can help work out the little issues. (Notcoincidentally, we're with the CUL on the little issues. Increasingthe pick size, renovating the dorms that need it, picking ourclusters. Having been allowed to participate, the students support

But there never was a right time for us to discuss the big pictureissues. It was too late from the beginning. If student participationis so vital to success, why weren't we given a chance to weigh in onthe big picture at all?

I can only speculate, but my guess is that you were afraid that wewouldn't like it. Well, you were right.

You (any of you) are invited to respond to this email addressanonymous.eph@gmail.com. Theresulting dialog will be published on the WSO wiki.