UST a campus with troubles

lolWhen I took Teachings of the Roman Catholic Church, we were taught that the word, Catholic has three meanings.

One: In its most general, sense the word catholic means universal.

Two: The term Catholic applied to those followers of Christ living in the Western portion of the Roman Empire.

Three: The term applies to those Churches and by extension their members who are in communion with, His Holiness, the Bishop of Roman and acknowledge his authority.

Can UST and the community truly and legitimately call itself a Catholic institution?
In my mind in order to be truly catholic in nature, a community or institution must meet all three definitions.

The University meets the second and third definitions of the term catholic. However, I would argue that the University fails to meet the first definition for two reasons,

First, the toleration of any form of discrimination against student minorities at the University is an abomination.

Second, the unwillingness in the past of the administration to acknowledge and engage in dialogue with gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered students on the issues faced by these students on campus daily as outlined in this passage from the article by Christina Fojas entitled Gay/Straight Alliance shifts focus: Club to request HRC chapter, non-discrimination policy,

Discrimination on campus has appeared in many subtle forms, primarily in
insensitive comments or hostile attitudes from classmates, according to Alliance
members. In one instance, Perez said a student brought a male doll dressed in a
pink bikini to school as a joke. "I felt embarrassed," Perez said. "No one wants
to acknowledge that there are gay students on campus, that there is
discrimination and it needs to be dealt with." http://www.ustcauldron.org/media/storage/paper444/news/2006/10/19/OtherNews/Gaystraight.Alliance.Shifts.Focus-2399452.shtml?norewrite200611021431&sourcedomain=www.ustcauldron.org&mkey=416196

seems to me to be exclusionary in nature and contrary to the stated mission and purpose of the University.

I applaud the efforts of the Gay/Straight Alliance. I urge the members to stay the course to which they have committed themselves. I give them my full and unconditional support.
It is my hope that your efforts will serve to encourage other minority groups on campus to speak out especially the disabled students of the University of Saint Thomas.

During my time at the University of Saint Thomas as a disabled student I was only too well aware no student advocacy group existed to aid the students of the university whose disabilities often left them at a disadvantage especially as incoming freshmen because, in my experience most incoming freshmen with disabilities were not well acquainted with the processes and procedures that were in place to determine the need for accommodations/ Additionally, topic relating to disability were not addressed during my tenure as a student in the New Student Orientation Program. To the best of my knowledge these deficiencies have not been address.

To the disabled students, I say the time has come for the disabled students of UST to unite together for the purposes of insuring that there is exists a student group for incoming students to turn to when they need support and advice.