I’m a little shocked that it’s come to this. When I signed up for a Wesleyan education, I thought I was going to a school where students were listened to, and where individuals were encouraged to make a difference. You, ResLife, have taught me very differently.

As a WestCo president, I have sat through your meetings and dealt with you face-to-face, ResLife. We’ve even shared a few laughs. But I have to say it: I’m tired, ResLife. Enough is enough. You can bully me, my fellow presidents and my dorm (and its history) only so much. Making us change the name of a beloved tradition because of a so-called “perception” is bad. Taking away our right to protest against said change is wrong.

We, as presidents, are NOT promoting the name ZHD with the funding we received. We are NOT responsible for what people feel and do. And for you to hold us responsible and to threaten us with canceling the festival in the future because people are expressing their opinions is beyond ridiculous. It’s disillusioning. Perhaps you have a vision of Wesleyan, the way I had one coming in this fall. But methinks the Wesleyan you envision is very different. You don’t seem to appreciate that others have different opinions than you, and you don’t respect your own student body. I don’t know how out of touch with a thing I like to call “reality” you would have to be to think that the community would roll over and take this. But even better, when the community gathers and responds, you seek to pull our funding and silence our voices. Like the inviting of friends to Facebook applications, THIS HAS GOT TO STOP.

I recognize that in your role as authority figures you have a duty to the laws of this country, the rules of this university, your bosses and our alums. You must recognize however, that as thinking, active-minded students who believe in a festival and everything that comes with it, including its name, we have a duty to stand by our traditions.

If people want to refer to the festival on April 19 as “Zonker Harris Day” in their conversations, you can’t stop them. If they want to write about it on themselves or on the ground, you can’t stop them. People have opinions and here at Wesleyan, we like to make them heard.

You will agree that we have tried with you. The presidents have had many meetings on this topic, and we have had a number of suggestions on how to make the day and the name more acceptable. We haven’t had tunnel vision on this issue. We were more than willing to make adjustments in order to keep the name. I think you’ll recall that you shot us down every time. Well, here I stand, full of holes, but with an opinion that can’t be killed. You can take our name. But you can never take the right to be vocal about this.

Time to man up, ResLife.