As a student from the suburbs, Renee Thessing’s column (“The culture clash” Feb. 14th) struck a nerve with me. How can you write an entire column about how it is unfair that you are consistently stereotyped, all the while stereotyping those of us from the suburbs? Perhaps you don’t realize it, but we don’t “all look and dress the same.” You chose one group to represent a much larger group of people. In fact, you treated us in exactly the same ignorant way that you claimed we treat you. And you’re blaming students from the suburbs for segregation on this campus?

Each one of your comments only further convinces me that students from the “South,” as you so eloquently put it, are just as much to blame for segregation and stereotypes as are students from the suburbs. I can’t deny that I think Chicago is the best city in the world, or that I will move there after I graduate in May. But you seem to get your definitions of “culture” and “commercialism” confused, pointing to the fact that just because I will choose to take that path with my life, or because I own a North Face fleece like so many people on this campus, that I am not cultured. Can you tell me the difference between one person in your freshman class thinking all people from southern Illinois look the same and you writing a column about how all people from the suburbs look the same? I don’t think there is one. Perhaps next time you choose to take a stand for those from the southern half of the state, you will do it in a less hypocritical way.

Lynn Greetis

senior in Engineering