UMEC article ignores important factors

I was very disappointed by your recent front-page article "UMEC Restricts White Students."  Mind you, I am not disappointed with your exploration of friction between the student members in student organizations and the opinions of the faculty/staff/administrators regarding how student organizations should be managed.   This seems to be one part of what the story is about.  The second component to your story, are white students being discriminated against by not being allowed membership into the Multicultural Honor Society, is another important question that could lead to educational debate on campus.  In fact, I think this story could have been a useful learning opportunity full of constructive conversation within an obviously still very sensitive racial climate here at GU.  Unfortunately, mostly because of the inaccurate title attached to the to the article, this article does not allow for this constructive conversation.  Instead, this choice of title appears to be an attempt to tap into a salacious style of journalism all too common (and a journalistic habit that I believe is unethical) that does a complete disservice to all of us consumers of your journalistic product. 

This headline is not true.  As a person who self-identifies as white (and is likely identified by others as white, too), I frequently attend and participate in UMEC events.  While attending UMEC events, I see many other students whom I would identify as the "white students" in your title who do not appear to be restricted in their participation at these events.  As far as I can tell, this is the point of these UMEC sponsored events — to facilitate a conversation across cultural groups within the student community.  I frequently encourage all my students to attend UMEC events (oftentimes with a writing assignment attached for extra credit), not so they can agree with everything being presented, but so they gain exposure to a perspective different from their own.  This is something we should all cultivate throughout our lives; through better understanding others, we can better understand ourselves. Now I am wondering, after your headline, do I need to make sure the next time I have one of these assignments that I announce, "By the way, white students may attend the event, too?"

The story you write, unlike the headline you published, is about restricting the membership of students in the Multicultural Honor Society.  Why is this not the headline of your story?  There is an important story here with important issues to be considered: is preventing white students into the Multicultural Honor Society discriminatory?  How much power should the faculty, staff and administration have over student organizations? Unfortunately, your piece did not provide our university with the opportunity to engage in this conversation, but rather seems to play on a sense of racial injustice that the white student body was being oppressed by the existence of a multicultural center on campus.  It is disappointing to me that any GU student would not be able to empathize with an alternate experience of a student at GU different from their own, that the editorial staff at The Bulletin would not see fit to check a headline for accuracy, and that the faculty adviser(s) to The Bulletin would not encourage a more responsible form of journalistic practice, especially when their mentees engage in such important but highly charged issues as this.  This type of reporting makes conversations in the classroom and on campus about these issues much more difficult—not for the issues you raise, but for how they are presented.  Ethical journalism to me means opening conversations for those of differing opinions, not shutting them down.