On a campus whose members pride themselves on a celebration of diversity and different cultures, the recent theft and vandalism of crosses displayed in honor of Christian Awareness Week is both shocking and hypocritical. The crosses, prominently erected throughout campus, were stolen on two consecutive nights by unknown parties.Although it is unclear who is responsible for the offense, it is clear that this is something the campus community cannot - and should not - ignore. No matter who is responsible for this act, community standards have been gravely violated.

One does not need to spend a tremendous amount of time on the Brandeis campus to realize that the University and its student body put a large emphasis on the celebration of differences. There are weeks dedicated to raising on-campus awareness of different races, months dedicated to women's history, and numerous other events specifically created to break stereotypes and encourage understanding of others. Against this backdrop, the theft of the crosses becomes not only offensive and unacceptable, but remarkably hypocritical: To deliberately undermine one group's attempt to raise awareness and consciousness throughout campus in effect undermines the work of other groups as well.

If Brandeis is truly on a quest for diversity and social justice, one cannot place greater importance on certain groups than others. Diversity is just that: Tolerance and understanding of all groups on this campus, not merely those groups that happen to be most vocal and the most populous; it seems fairly meaningless to hold forums and discussions of diversity if only certain groups are to be protected and accepted under the blanket term.

Many of the students who attend Brandeis are the grandchildren - and in some cases children - of religious refugees who escaped oppressive and discriminating regimes in order to practice their faith freely. Brandeis students are of different races, ethnicities and religious backgrounds. Brandeis students take courses to discuss differences and broaden their horizons, they hold rallies and lobby the administration to encourage equality on campus, they describe themselves as activists and unite in the face of injustice: One does not need to go beyond last semester's WBRS incident to see this campus oppose an act of discrimination.

One can only hope that these students can once again come together to help the Christian community: The thefts of their crosses suggest a tremendous prejudice and grave disrespect for the Christianity and its followers, as well as for members of the Brandeis community as a whole. For a campus that has expressed so much righteous anger over the WBRS incident and other instances of inequality, to leave the Christian community alone to deal with this blatant case of discrimination would essentially express a much a greater inequality on this campus - the inequality of protection and tolerance from a university prides itself on diversity.