Disney program what you make of it
This is in response to Ms. Childs’ letter claiming the Disney World College Program leaves something to be desired. This is simply not true. The College Program is what you make of it.
I myself was part of the Fall CP in 2000. I worked at Space Mountain in the Magic Kingdom and had the time of my life. I went for the experience of the real world and meeting new people. I met people from all over the world and at least one person from every state. I made a few lifelong friends and still keep in touch with many others.
I understand Ms. Childs went for the opportunity to work with designers and artists and it didn’t work out, but that is nobody’s fault but hers. Disney does not guarantee anything and in my experience they do everything to help you. There are business seminars teaching the skills of networking and making the most of your time at Disney. It is up to you to make the contacts and learn what you can while you are there. And too much work is not an excuse. I would sometimes work 80 hours a week at Space Mountain and I still found the time to do the things I wanted.
It is not the job of the CP recruiters, the managers at your work station, or the people at Vista Way to hold your hand and take you to the designers. No one promised you could help make Finding Nemo on the College Program.
As you mentioned, Ms. Childs, the name of Disney is a tremendous asset on your resume. It can open doors that might not previously be available, as it has for me. The valuable experience of dealing with people and learning to work in dynamic situations is the real benefit of the WDWCP. Do you honestly think 15 hours of classes (that are not lost, only postponed) can replace this experience? I missed a football season to do this and being one of the biggest Tiger Fans on the planet, I can assure you and anyone else, it was well worth it and I would do it again in a heartbeat.
I am very sorry you did not have a good time on your CP, but please do not take away from the fantastic experiences that thousands of CP’ers and international students have every year.
Ms. Childs, it has nothing to do with Pixie Dust and everything to do with drive, determination, desire for learning and having a little fun.
Thomas Shaw
Alumnus
History and Political Science
New honors requirements unfair
For those of you who didn’t hear about the recent decision to raise honor roll requirements for the fall semester, I will recap. Last week, the Faculty Senate decided to increase the number of hours of coursework to even be considered for the Dean or Chancellor’s List. This was to encourage students to complete 15 hours per semester, so they can graduate in four years.
I find this extremely unfair. First of all, if 12 hours is considered a full-time student, then full-time students have the right to be considered for either list. Plain and simple.
However, my case, probably very similar to others, makes this increase more unjust. I will try to make this quick and uncomplicated.
I am getting a major in Graphic Design as well as a minor in Mass Communication. This is my third year at LSU; however, I will be here a total of five years because of the three-year curriculum in the design program. Currently, I have a total of 87 completed hours, not counting my 12 hours from this semester. Even though, I am only enrolled in these 12 hours this semester, I am actually in class 22 hours each week and couldn’t find the time to add in another six hours.
The reason that I am only enrolled in 12 hours is not only because my classes are very timely, but for the past five semesters I have sped through school by taking summer school classes and also received several hours from the much encouraged freshman orientation tests.
So as of right now, I have 60 more hours to complete in only five semesters, which is only 12 hours each semester. Like I said before, I have already picked up one minor to fill up my schedule, so I will still be considered a full-time student in order to keep my scholarship as well as my on-campus job.
Because I have excelled in the past two and a half years, which is what the Faculty Senate’s main purpose was to do with the increase in hours, I will not have the opportunity to be recognized in the future, unless I pick up yet another minor.
Colleen Landry
Junior
Graphic Design
Parking was not always a big problem
In response to Jacob Savoie who hails from “the pits of the first-yearers,” allow me to elaborate on the parking problem we are facing which does, in fact, exist and is not just a fabricated delusion of students who can not “manage their time well.”
You see, Jacob, years before your time, what is now the West Campus Apartments was nothing but a huge parking lot. Parking was as easy as pulling up to school, and getting out of your car.
That’s how it should be.
Well the university (who you claim is “doing all that it can to provide adequate parking”) built the NCA to compete with the booming apartment market surrounding the campus. So they took away parking spots. Doing all it can, right?
We are now left with a small portion of the once strategically oversized Kirby Smith lot. But students are no longer allowed to park in the Kirby Smith lot, only residents. There are, on any given day, about 150 empty parking spots available in the Kirby Smith lot but we cannot park there because the university has designated those spots as a green zone, so commuting students can not park their cars in empty spots.
An obvious solution to maximize the amount of parking in any given space is to stack the cars up in a parking garage. Students have been asking for a parking garage since I began here in 2000, and as one can see right next to Hart lot with the budding apartments The Venue, a parking garage is not hard to build and can go up relatively quick. So why hasn’t the University built one over Hart lot, which is amply sized for such structures?
Because the University-backed Master Plan includes eventually turning Hart lot (one of the largest on campus) into a wide-open yet pitifully pointless grassy meadow. (The Master Plan does include plans for a parking garage across campus near the Law School over buildings that already exist, moving students even farther away from their classes and spending needlessly for demolition costs).
So what’s the problem here? Surely, our university must have enough money to build a relatively inexpensive parking garage. I mean, from an outsider’s perspective, we have one of the highest-paid chancellors in the nation, the highest-paid football coach, a newly-designed, multimillion dollar Academic Center for Student Athletes, perennial construction and updates on Tiger Stadium, one of the largest in the country, so one can safely assume that money is not the problem.
Alan Mayeux
Senior
Writing & Culture/Criminology
Hussein was a weapon in himself
I’m getting pretty tired of reading articles by left-wing radicals that are willing to risk more American lives in order to avoid an assertive confrontation. Perhaps Saddam did not have weapons of mass destruction aimed at the United States. Saddam Hussein, himself, is a weapon of mass destruction. Innocent people were killed every day under his tyrannical regime. It seems to me that everyone opposing the invasion of Iraq has forgotten 9/11. Should a government “that is supposed to govern and protect us from harm” risk the lives of tens of thousands of Americans in order to be “fair” to a tyrant? I certainly think not.
The Bush administration’s “new level of deception” seems slightly less problematic than the “missile-secret-selling adulterer” that was in office before Bush. Have you forgotten Bill Clinton, a president that straight up lied to the American people on television? Clinton also allowed Osama Bin Laden to fall under the radar. Obviously someone of Clinton’s high morals and impeccable judgment is more suited for the office of president.
Jimmy Rumney
Freshman                   
Mass Communication
Diets can be base of healthy living
J. Colin Trisler’s article in Wednesday’s Reveille about diet fads and their overall effects brought up a few good points. Aside from that, Mr. Trisler, like many Americans, seems to be misinformed as well.
I will agree with him that an epidemic is present of overweight Americans. Stories such as the one mentioned of a family blaming a cable company for weight gain because the influence of watching television was too hard to pass up, thus rendering members of the family heavier than before, are absurd. In most cases, people find it easier to blame everyone and everything other than themselves for becoming portly.
   Getting fit and losing weight does require a lifestyle change, and I especially can agree to that. Over the past two years, I have lost fifty pounds, and included exercise and weight training into my daily routine.
I have spent a lifetime jumping from one diet “scheme” to another, and eventually the one that worked best was one that I developed on my own. I disagree with Mr. Trisler that diets such as Atkins and South Beach are unhealthy in the long run.
The concept is to start with minimal carbohydrates, and eventually work a meal plan to include the right carbs in moderation. Atkins in particular is divided up into phases. The first phase which pretty much eliminates carbs altogether would be unhealthy, if continued for a long period of time. As time progresses, the diet becomes ‘low-carb,’ in which the body is still given a sufficient source of energy.
   In many low-fat diets, the dieter is allowed foods with sugar. Sugar causes the production of insulin which keeps people from losing weight, and makes it difficult for those who include exercise.
   I am a firm believer that diet pills and hypnosis are not the answer for weight loss. I do believe, however, that people should be encouraged to take diets such as Atkins and South Beach, and use them as a base plan for developing the right foods into a way of life.
I applaud those who start slow and commit themselves to lifestlye changes, mainly in what they eat. If it means joining the low carb revolution with the Atkins diet, South Beach, Sugarbusters, etc., then so be it.
Charles Chatelain
Junior
English