[Heath]

To Jewish women: What are some of the challenges you face/have faced on a college campus? What is difficult, and what should be changed?

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Name : Heath, Gender : M, Race : White/Caucasian, Religion : Methodist, Age : 28, City : Bowling Green, State : OH Country : United States, Occupation : Student Affairs/Grad. student, Education level : Over 4 Years of College, 

[Rhiannon]

I haven't had any big problems. I was an undergrad at Rutgers in New Jersey, and there were tons of Jewish people. Now I'm a grad student at the University of Minnesota, and there are few Jews here, so the big "problem" is feeling like a minority, which I didn't experience in New Jersey. I'm not religious, so it doesn't affect me much that Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur aren't days off, but that annoys me - often the first day of school is Rosh Hashana. My biggest conflict: I caused a ruckus in the school newspaper a few years ago when I wrote an angry letter complaining that the school post office sold only Christmas stamps, and didn't offer any secular stamp alternatives. I didn't word it as diplomatically as I should have (at the time, I was truly upset), and some people wrote some angry and hurtful responses. Unfortunately, your average white Midwesterner doesn't have all that much consciousness of what it's like to be different, so I think people had a lot of trouble empathizing with me. One thing to add: I always "come out" to my students as Jewish. Sadly, for many, I'm the first they've ever met.

User Detail :  

Name : Rhiannon, Gender : F, Race : White/Caucasian, Religion : Jewish, Age : 28, City : Minneapolis, State : MN Country : United States, Occupation : Media studies graduate student, 

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