On Oct. 9, 2006, an “unnamed” professor harassed Rainbow Alliance students in the Busch Student Center.

Don’t let this seep into oblivion.

Don’t just let it go.

When a distasteful public display of ignorance jeopardizes the confidence and security of Saint Louis University students, it is your duty to know about it and our duty to report to you.

But whose job is it to do assure that similar bullying won’t happen again?

Yes, as Rainbow Alliance president Jenna Wells points out, it is essential for students to make responsible decisions, especially when professors’ jobs and students’ safety are on the line. But institutions responsible for students must not be lulled or, worse, intimidated into diluting the seriousness of what happened to the students in the BSC in October, students they aim to nurture and whose interests they protect.

Confrontations like these must be brought to the attention of the SLU community before they can be remedied.

Wells apologizes for a lack of timeliness in bringing this offense to justice, but she shouldn’t take the blame. She is right in saying that all parties involved could have done more, sooner, to expedite fairness. Rainbow Alliance, Campus Ministry and Busch Student Center officials could have met earlier to support students’ interests.

In fact, we, The University News, apologize for not reporting this story earlier.

We understand that this was a traumatizing experience for the students involved and agree that they are not to be blamed in any way for the perpetrating professor’s unprofessional conduct.

But there must be organizations at SLU willing to fight for students. All students must know that they can-and should-feel welcome, especially a campus that takes pride in its growing diversity.

We’ve received some negative feedback after addressing this issue. Some correspondents feel that we were unfair in asking for the professor’s resignation. Others think that hate speech is an inevitable consequence of free speech, and that those who do exercise freedom of expression are foolish.

But we’ve also received many letters of support for Rainbow Alliance students. An American Studies professor discussed last week’s article in class. There’s a Facebook group called “Not at SLU” devoted to this issue-at the time of this editorial’s publication, it had 223 members. We even received a letter from a former Rainbow Alliance president who claims that SLU alumni across the globe are following the progression of this story.

So don’t just drop this. Continue to ask for more. Learn from this impropriety. Know that institutions like Rainbow Alliance, the Student Government Association, Campus Ministry, The University News and others have your best interests in mind.

We are willing to fight for you and for justice so that this type of harassment doesn’t happen again.