Letters

Fight for your education

Dear Rod Stevenson: After reading your letter to the editor about the “BS” that is University Studies, I felt that you might be interested in hearing a mentor’s opinion, as it represents the other side of yours. Now, I ask you what your expectations were that University Studies did not meet. If you expected to drink from the fountain of eternal cleverness, but found that in the end, all you did was read and hear words, then I must urge you to consider whose fault it is that you did not take as much as you could carry from this experience.

As a mentor myself, I appreciate your opinion, but your method of trying to solve your problem is not impressing me. From your letter, it leads me to the conclusion that all “hot teachers” are inherently profound. Since this statement offends reason, I fail to see where you are attempting to make your claim. Furthermore, what have you done in attempt to ease your troubles? As a FRINQ mentor, I encourage my students to advocate for themselves.

When I was a freshman here at PSU, I found myself in a University Studies situation that I felt was unjust. Rather than write a random complaint to the Vanguard, I wrote one to the University Studies director. As I expected, I was met with and the problem ceased to exist. I am quite disheartened to know that you refer to your University Studies experience as “BS,” which does not even merit the use of a full word.

However, in the name of decorum, should you wish to discuss your disconcerting experience more fully, I would be happy to chat with you. My advice to you, sir, is that you must not sit idly by as your education progresses if it does so in an unsatisfactory manner. After all, if knowledge is the key, then it is up to you to ensure that your key fits.

Heather CampbellPSU Freshman Inquiry mentor

Not quite eco-friendly

The Beisell-Ozimkowski ticket maintains their dedication to sustainability, but in practice they fail completely. Take a walk through Cramer Hall and count how many blue fliers you see. Is there any rationale for 10 fliers on one set of lockers? Do they think we cannot see them? Both Patrick and Johnnie hold executive staff positions in the current ASPSU administration, which also proclaims supreme sustainability practices but again, horribly wastes paper. It simply doesn’t make any sense to me why so many fliers are needed in one hallway. Have they run out of ingenious ways to reach students or are they wasting paper because it’s easy?

Amanda Newberg

Patrick and Johnnie have a plan

How many years of ASPSU elections have to go by before candidates realize that plastering fliers all over the stairwells and study areas is no substitute for substantive solutions to problems that face students? The Vanguard is reporting on government’s pitiful investment in higher education and one of the solutions is flashy campaign fliers? Suck my shoes. After reading about higher education funding in the Vanguard and seeing that Patrick and Johnnie plan to fight for a tuition plateau to keep my cost of education from rising, I’m voting for Patrick and Johnnie and their slate members.

Tyler Kueber

Some things are unforgivable

I was listening to Don Imus the morning when he made his “off the hip” racial joke about the Rutgers women’s basketball team. Didn’t laugh.

Wonder why Rev. Al Sharpton finds it hard to forgive Imus. Isn’t this what his Christianity is all about?

In 2005, Dr. Bruce Leistikow, associate professor in the Department of Public Health Services at the University of California, Davis School of Medicine and Medical Center, stated, “A new analysis links tobacco smoke to 63 percent of cancer deaths among African-American men in the United States. African-American men have the highest cancer death rate of any gender-ethnic group in the United States.”

One R.J. Reynolds Tobacco document from 1989 proposed that their Camels would be sold in packs of 10, packed upside down in the package, and the package would “have an inner city look to it–possibly a graffiti look. Blacks smoke fewer cigarettes per day and have less money, making a 10-pack an ideal configuration.”

Who is responsible for allowing Big Tobacco to prey on black inner-city kids?

How precious is a human life?

Tobacco loves “all” to death.

I forgive Imus, never tobacco.

Mike Sawyer, master of divinityExecutive director, I Will Never Use Tobacco

Legislators do help students

In response to Eva Fitzsimons’ article on April 10 [“Portland responds to Ways and Means budget”], I would like to congratulate the active students of Portland State.

Granted, one should not be overly celebratory since there are many weeks left in this fight, and we need to keep the pressure on legislators, but seeing students from across the school come together last Thursday and challenge the devastatingly inappropriate cuts to higher education and capital construction was a sight to behold. Additionally, it is an indication that despite the frustrating remarks by one student that “there’s a huge amount of apathy on campus right now,” in all actuality, students care about access to a quality education and aren’t going to let the state balance the budget on the backs of students any longer. As the state affairs director for ASPSU, I have been lobbying legislators all year long, and it is comforting to know that the hard work that ASPSU has put into this campaign will not go unrecognized.

Patrick BeisellASPSU state affairs director

Port Charles and TMNT

I tried to put this on your message board with the article about the new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie but I couldn’t figure out how to use the board–there were a lot of confusing directions to follow.

That said: I remember watching Nolan North back in the days when Port Charles really was about doctors, nurses and their careers, and I was deeply saddened when the show began to fritter away the talents of their seasoned professionals to go out after the weird and unusual. What is ironic here is that, when a bunch of Angels with Agendas came to Port Charles, everyone in our group guessed that they were really Teenaged Mutant Ninja Turtles in disguise! Some parents in our group, of course, raised objections, pointing out that it was an insult to TMNT to be compared to the kind of low-brow fare which Port Charles became in its declining years because, well, as any parent can tell you, writers of kids’ cartoon shows have standards–something which soap opera writers abandoned looooong ago!

I am just so thrilled that Nolan North has finally run into some writers who have-obviously-higher standards than the supposed writers of Port Charles had when that show was on its last legs! No one deserves to be a part of a major success story like TMNT appears to be becoming quite as much Nolan North deserves to be. I am so thrilled for all of these young men. I can only wish them continued success in the future. This is absolutely fabulous.

Thank you for a writing such a fine article.

Deborah J. Reyes

Westminster, Colo.