To the Editor:

Earlier this month, I responded to a Maroon-News commentary regarding former Colgate President George B. Cutten’s comments about immigration and race, and indicated that I would appoint a working group to coordinate broad discussion of these issues. I asked the Student Government Association, the Faculty Affairs Committee, the Executive Committee of the Diversity Council and the ALANA Affairs Committee to provide me with the names of persons who could serve on this group.

I am pleased to announce that the working group (four students, three faculty members and two staff members) has been appointed. The members are Michael Carrington ’06, Jina Chung ’08, Tara Meister ’07, Jeremy Randall ’08, Pete Banner-Haley (Associate Professor of History and Africana and Latin American Studies), Lyn Rugg (Associate Professor of Romance Languages and Literature), Robert Nemes (Associate Professor of History), Mark Edwards (Dean of Institutional Diversity and Lecturer in Sociology and Anthropology) and Jaime Nolan (Director of the Office of Undergraduate Studies). Mark Edwards will serve as chair.

The group met this week, and I have asked them to produce a report summarizing their findings and recommendations as to how Colgate can begin to address the ambiguities and contradictions of its past in a way that will continue to educate the community on the critical issues of immigration, race and diversity.

It is my hope that they will complete their work before the end of the spring semester.

Rebecca Chopp

President