Junior Ben Evans’ editorial last week lambasting the Colgate Review was possibly the worst Letter to the Editor ever printed in the Maroon-News. I should begin by stating that as a former officer of the Colgate College Republicans and someone who witnessed the creation of the paper discussed, I found much of the content to be poorly written and a bit radical.

As a first draft, some kinks surely need to be worked out. Unfortunately, people such as Ben Evans have made radical conservatism the only option for conservatives on campus. Evans wrongfully excoriates the new paper as being a propaganda tool of DKE without knowing what he’s talking about. In fact, the paper is a product of College Republican efforts to put forth a conservative voice badly lacking in campus publications. Mr. Evans’ claims of bigotry are unfounded, and his article makes him look incompetent, one who somehow fooled the admissions department into believing he could think critically.

Unfortunately, Evans’ unintelligent rant exposes serious problems in our culture on campus. He defines a liberal arts education as an experience of radical perspectives that challenge traditional norms. An accurate definition of a liberal arts education is one that exposes students to different fields of study and does not regulate their experience towards vocational training. Liberal Arts has never meant a diversity of perspectives that are specifically non-mainstream. It simply means exposure to many different fields of study. Unfortunately, Evans seems to have spent three years here without knowing anything about the foundations of the institution he attends.

Attacking the Colgate Review for its advocating a deference to traditional values shared by many people on campus is ridiculous.

More problematic than conservatives speaking openly is that Colgate funds are spent on activities such as performances of “The Vagina Monologues,” a play that not only glorifies the drunken rape of a 14-year-old girl by an older woman but also teaches women that the best way to be empowered as a sex is to shout the nomenclature of genitalia. The play is celebrated for challenging traditional norms, despite the fact that it is a poorly written text that can hardly be defined as promoting anything close to moral values. Evans’ claim that, “The last thing we need is 2,500 George W. Bush’s running around this school with their collars up,” is indicative of the type of bigotry many liberals espouse while hypocritically declaring that conservatives have no right to voice their views on important issues. Apparently, it is crucial to criticize DKE, but supporting their position should not be tolerated.

More disturbing than the fact that Evans credits the wrong institution with the publication of the Colgate Review is Evans’ reckless claim that upon seeing editions of the Colgate Review in the future, he will promptly burn them. Apparently liberals on campus have become fascist in their lack of toleration for anyone who has a different opinion than they do. Evans begs the real question the Colgate Review was founded on: What does diversity really mean?

I posit that diversity as maliciously perverted by the likes of Evans is nothing more than one-sided bigotry toward conservatives that unfortunately, Evans chooses to dignify in print.