Election Board decision ridiculous
As a veteran of eight student government elections in my time at LSU, I came to know the election code better than any commissioner or election board member.
Once, I even have had an election commissioner ask me to interpret the code.
After reading the article about the “Buller/Lay” ticket, I was floored by the decison the election board made.
It is not a violation of the code to send out an organizing message to people you know. Lay knew the people in question; this was a personal correspondence and not a broadcast message. This wasn’t campaigning; it was an organizational effort.
The election board gave Buller and Lay the death penalty, disqualifying them as candidates before they even could file. To add to the absurdity, Buller and Lay never mentioned they were in fact running for Student Government president and vice president, they only mentioned the Buller/Lay ticket.
The election board members now have shown themselves to be keystone cops.
As for those who filed the complaint, I must say their timing was perfectly insidious. I used to have respect for Kyle Wilkinson and Allen Richey, but their complaint was nothing more than a cowardly stratagem designed to get the strongest candidate out of the race.
Justin G. Germany
LSU Alumnus
Greek assessment no longer needed
It soon will be that time of year when students will toil with project deadlines, paper due dates and demanding tests; however, for a select few, another burden will abound: the Greek assessment.
The Greek assessment was born of a knee-jerk reaction on the University’s part in an attempt to chill the public relations nightmare stirred by Benjamin Wynne’s death by what I believe to be alcohol-induced suicide. In light of the rush to judgment, it was understandable for the campus’ Greek organizations to accept this requirement with little scrutiny.
As time has passed, the Greek assessment has ballooned from its benevolent roots of holding organizations accountable for their actions to what now amounts to excessive entanglement in the private actions of private organizations.
Originally, the assessment team (five arbitrarily selected faculty members, whose selection is undertaken without consulting any Greek organization or governing body) considered each organization’s worth by examining the totality of that organization’s programming and activities. The “team” would then rate the organization on a scale of one to five.
The system recently was complicated unduly by a new rating system where the organization is rated in over 20 areas individually. These areas each possess a different point value, which is totaled to provide a ranking from one to 100. These areas include: the imperative (such as an honor code signed by all members), proprietary information (an operating budget), frivolous “feel-good” categories (multicultural programming) and the out-and-out ridiculous (a log detailing the presence of an organization’s elderly house mother at seminars on the importance of condoms). It is important to note most of the seminars the assessment seeks to require already are required inasmuch as they are necessary for an organization to receive insurance.
It is time to stop the madness. The need for the assessment has come and gone. The behavior the assessment seeks to limit already is being curtailed, considering the fear of lawsuits, whereby each individual member can be held accountable to the tune of millions. Certainly, no orgy of paper work is going to resurrect Wynne, despite what some University administrators appear to believe.
Chris Wheeler
Senior — Political Science
Letter’s call for sympathy appalling
I am completely appalled by Robert Bigelow’s letter that ran Monday, March 10. For those of you who did not read it, it went something like this, “I know you all feel bad for the family and friends of Carrie Yoder, but you should really feel sorry for me.”
Mr. Bigelow then went on to say because of all the worried women out there armed with Mace and guns, he no longer could walk at night because he might be mistaken for an attacker and get maced or shot. Forgive me while I laugh.
I know a lot of frightened women and will admit to being one myself, but I don’t know anyone who has resorted to macing or shooting random men who happen to be out on foot after dark. Now, if Mr. Bigelow peeps in windows or snatches purses during his walk home, I can understand his concern. Otherwise, if Mr. Bigelow actually believes some frightened woman will shoot him as he is getting off the Tigerland Bus, perhaps he needs to see a therapist.
Renee Olcsvary
Senior — Sociology
Bible eating was to make a point
I would like to respond to the “stupid” Bible eating freshman Mr. Jacobs referred to in his letter to the editor Friday.
I know I won’t get much more than fiber out of eating the Bible. I obviously wasn’t eating it because I was hungry. I was going for a more visual form of free speech.
What I wanted to present was my own little zen koan of sorts. I’ll explain it in words if you’d like. Taking an orthodox approach, Jesus said to eat his body at the last supper. If Jesus is God, and God is the Word, then we should eat the Word. Basically, I was trying to say “don’t take the Bible literally” by showing what type of silliness it can lead to.
Personally, I find the whole thing a little hard to swallow.
Joseph Morel
Junior — Political Science & International Studies
Legacy article stereotyped Greeks
I write this letter in response to Mr. Tim Basilica’s article in The Legacy magazine circulating campus. What he wrote is the equivalent all of the negative publicity LSU and the Greek community received in 1998. What Mr. Basilica does is paint us a picture that Greeks at LSU are simple-minded in the fact that all they wish to do is get drunk. As a member of a fraternity on campus, I would like to defend myself and my fellow Greeks against this stereotype.
The “social life for an average Greek” consists of much more than going out and getting so drunk you sleep in the back of your car. Greeks are one of the most visible contributors to many non-profit organizations around campus and around the Baton Rouge community. We donate our time to homeless shelters, local schools, hospitals and many other places of need. Through fund-raisers, large contributions are given to these local charities. I finish with a challenge to Mr. Basilica. I challenge you to go out and get the whole picture next time you try and write an article.
T.J. Navarro
Geography
‘Under God’ is not unconstitutional
Ms. Couvillon has stated one of the main arguments used by those who take the 9th circuit court’s stance on the Constitution issue. She says replacing the word “God” with Allah, Shiva, or any other specific God will show how it is unconstitutional. This is an invalid argument because the words “under God” do not imply a specific God or religion. If you can name one religion that just worships “God,” as opposed to a specific deity, I will give you a cookie. Since “under God” doesn’t specify a specific religion, there is separation of church and state, which is NOT unconstitutional.
Some argue atheists are excluded, to whom I point out the fact that this country was founded with the belief of a higher power. There are some people who believe in communism and racism whose beliefs are not included in the constitution either. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying atheists are bad by any means. I’m just pointing out how there always will be groups of people who disagree with some aspects of our country. This doesn’t mean our country will change the constitution for them. If someone doesn’t want to say the words “under God,” they have the right to skip that part. Nobody is FORCING a belief as you imply.
Blake Simeon
Senior — ISDS
‘Three strikes’ laws unfair in nature
The only kind of people who willfully ignore facts regarding three strike laws are those that share Mr. Ragusa’s opinions on the matter. Three strike laws, by their very nature, target people who commit minor offenses, as those who get convicted of more serious crimes will tend to serve more prison time and not have the chance to become repeat offenders.
Even if an offender has a serious felony in his or her past, it is hideously unjust to attach additional prison time when the third offense comes from something like minor theft or marijuana possession. I find it odd that we Americans have little problem finding new ways to toss the poor into prison, yet little effort is made to pass any new legislation to fight white-collar crime. We continue to use draconian punishments against the poor like three strikes and the death penalty, yet the only thing we manage to increase is injustice, not public safety.
Mr. Ragusa also might want to note there’s no mention in the Constitution of “victim’s rights.” Victims are not the ones who risk becoming the target of a zealous government. The phrase is a code word for the understandable anger exploited by the “git tuff on crime” element of society for political gain, an element all too willing to trample the rights of the individual to appease the mob.
Jack Dragna
LSU Alumnus