When someone of your status publicly lavishes praise upon a vigorous opponent of fair wages, it severely decreases confidence that the University takes economic access and equity seriously.

From academic crisis to a nationally televised sucker punch to the rise of women’s sports, numerous members of the Washington University community have lived, played and worked through headline events in Division I sports.

The topic is certainly heated, but institutions must make an honest effort to handle it, and that includes Wash. U. The question is whether we are capable of listening to voices in a context that also represents their narrative.

A recent CBS News poll found that 57 percent of Americans now support sending ground troops to the Middle East to fight ISIS. We must have forgotten that our previous involvement in the region led to the vacuum in power that has facilitated the group’s ascent.

In some ways, University officials have demonstrated a laudable desire to seriously examine our own complicity in the institutional racism of St. Louis. When I say “our,” I mean all of us who study or work at Wash. U., not just the administrators who take most of the heat.

In any case where a black person is killed by a police officer, some common points emerge to justify the crimes. If you find yourself grasping for evidence to oppose such claims, I hope that the following responses—more specifically tailored to the Darren Wilson case—can help.

Whitman is our first-year athletic director, having replaced John Schael after a tenure spanning nearly four decades. Whitman has actively recruited students to our sporting events with all-school email blasts advertising Red Alert. But one message he sent to only student-athletes last week is his most significant yet, and it has little to do with Bear sports.

I attended Lacob’s talk eager to hear his opinion on another issue that has dominated the NBA news cycle for the past several months. I asked what impact the franchise sales of Donald Sterling and Bruce Levenson after both made racially charged comments has on the dynamic of NBA ownership.

Last week, we printed an op-ed submission entitled “Professors’ endorsement of Israel boycott deserves condemnation” in the pages of this Forum section. The writer’s conflation of anti-Semitism with criticism of a government is a reckless accusation and in no way a defense of the academic freedom or nondiscrimination he claims to hold dear.

Since the killing of Mike Brown over a month ago, Twitter has driven worldwide attention to protests and ongoing abuse by law enforcement. The feeds of activists, including Antonio French and the Lost Voices, have kept focus and dialogue on Ferguson alive.