For the past three years the EUS has been a part of ongoing conversations surrounding concerns and issues at the Camp 5 Iron Ring Ceremony. We have continually received feedback that a specific part of the event, prior to the ceremony, has not be inclusive to all members of our community. This year that issue was brought into focus at a briefing session with the upcoming attendees. The EUS felt increasing concern about the upcoming ceremony and took part in an Open Letter to Camp 5 surrounding these concerns. This can be read here: https://bit.ly/2ChJCVE

We are happy to report that we feel because of this we have made positive progress for this year’s ceremonies. Members of the EUS, in specific our EUS VP Academic Tyra Phillips, has met with Wardens from Camp 5 to discuss in depth these issues. We have also received a response to our letter which is shown below. Although we would not go as far to call this response an apology, we do recognize the acknowledgement from Camp 5 for the issues from the past and their commitment to be inclusive and welcoming for all students this year and in the future.

We hope this message and commitment makes all upcoming attendees trust that this year will be a positive environment for them to celebrate this important milestone.

However, as engineers we want to ensure that we are constantly improving of feedback and relationship with this ceremony. As such, the EUS has created a feedback form for all attendees this year. Please feel free to let us know what you think of the ceremony this year and provide any positives and negatives. We hope that this documented and centralized feedback system will only improve this experience moving forward. Link to feedback here: https://goo.gl/forms/aUpNkbBDsIekBkJD3

Let us know if you have any other concerns, we hope you enjoy the ceremony on March 27th!