It’s officially the start of summer for DePaul students. After today, the last final of the school year will be taken, and some will go back to their homes for another few months.

Some students will move on to graduate school. Others might travel the world. Some of them might even go to The Real World of nine to five jobs and yearly salaries. That’s a little frightening, if you ask me.

And still, other students have not ended their year. There are still active protests, still angry faculty and staff, still upset parents and academics. DePaul has not reversed its decision to deny tenure to two professors, Norman Finkelstein in the Political Science department and Mehrene Larudee in the International Studies department, despite the obvious support from faculty. In the case of Professor Larudee, this support was unanimous.

Yesterday, at an open DePaul faculty meeting, I sat with students who had spent their finals week dedicated to speaking out. The day earlier, these same students had been threatened with expulsion, merely for a sit-in protest that had not even lasted a week.

DePaul has now officially silenced students as well as professors. For this reason, there are parents who no longer wish to send their children to DePaul, academics who are boycotting our school.

A friend of mine said, “DePaul has let me down.” And he is right. Because there was a sense of trust that has now faltered, a trust that DePaul must attempt to repair by doing what is clearly right.

But rebuilding trust? Well, that takes a long time.