Forecasts not uncharacteristic of a West Lafayette February loom over this exam week while broadcasts of questionable character have been brought to light. The resignation of a university employee following accusations of threatened rape finds our precious Purdue bubble under the national media microscope with a permeating macro-issue. Great, all I need is another reason to procrastinate studying for my next exam.

So what happened? Visual and Performing Arts Dance Accompanist and Composer, Jamie Newman, was pressured internally to submit resignation following remarks in very publicly accessible online forums, including Facebook and Disqus. More profound were the external pressures from student organizations, who appeared to have been targeted for expressing the values on which they base their organization.

Controversies of long ago could have been met with a slap on the wrist and been brushed under the carpet. Today, these emotionally charged, opinionated expressions were broadcast to a scale so public that the administration's hand was seemingly played for them. But I'm not in the business of recounting the standard operating procedures of contemporary media outlets; instead, I'll ask, why does this matter to us Boilermakers?

The lively clashing of ideas and opinion should absolutely be encouraged in a scholarly environment such as ours, and with hot ticket items such as Pro-Life/Pro-Choice, emotions will ooze from our words whether spoken in Memorial Mall or in print on our news feeds. However, our higher learning should remind us of our heightened standards where wrongful communication could revert our progress as students, a campus, and a nation.

We should anticipate and expect challenge from our faculty, in the sense that it should foster our growth. On the other hand, we should feel safety in our harbor that is Purdue. We instill trust (and invest tuition) in those employed by the university in return for the cornerstones that inspire us to explore our potential, express our beliefs, and envelop our passions with every drop of emotion we can offer. And we do. We are ____makers, after all.

We have made so much progress on our campus, leaving footprints on humankind much like those made by our own Neil Armstrong on the moon. This progress met with national traction on other campuses, with Greek organizations, life advocates, and culturally diverse voices. I believe that these organizations invoke positive trends for the behavior and respect between students. But does our ability to share these values and beliefs come hand in hand with subjective feedback? I can empathize with why these student organizations feel compelled to speak up; but why did a member of faculty jeopardize his career to speak out?

Newman facetiously "apologized" for some of his statements because the accusations are slanderous. However, the screenshots claim differently. Hasn't anyone ever heard that the internet is written in ink?

Constructive criticism aside, the students of Purdue Students for Life (the local branch of Students for Life of America) appear to have received opinionated correction by Newman who finds no hesitation addressing their members as "vile, racist idiots" and "epically clueless or profoundly malicious."

Elsewhere, Newman seems to have found the need to reiterate his thought experiment to present his opposition:

Newman's only generosity has been in turning his thought experiment into a national social experiment, at the cost of our student body as the key subject. What could an outsider, perhaps in Washington, D.C, who may themselves be supporting a similar cause, reading coverage of this story, imagine the culture of our campus? My hypothesis is that it paints a picture of a systemic disregard for students' expression, safety, and any efforts for improvement. What about a student making strides on their campus fighting sexual assault, discouraged by the schtick of a faculty member on another campus? Already our community is seeing the backlash. For example, when our Greek community reached out to the Twittersphere to invite people to donate to the fund to build houses for Habitat for Humanity, there was a negative, out of context response:

I mean have you seen our efforts with It's On Us? #PurdueCONDEMNSrape. So the humble and generous efforts of thousands have been forgotten because of the charged opinions of one? No, it's still on us.

It's in these times of heightened awareness that we can review what we are as Boilermakers. Despite the pressure these issues place on our precious bubble here at Purdue, I welcome any pin that tries to pop it. Our community is only strengthened by taking on these challenging situations rather than sweeping them under the rug. I still feel as proud to be a Boilermaker as I did the day I received that precious old-golden ticket that said, "You've been accepted to Purdue University."