I commend these journalism students for trying to make a difference in campus accessibility. I know firsthand how hard it can be for someone who is disabled to get around. My mother became disabled about three years ago, and it opened my eyes to the world completely.
Everywhere my mom went, the wheelchair had to go with her. I have seen my mom struggle with so-called “handicapped-accessible” places that weren’t exactly accessible at all. First of all, without my door-opening assistance she never would have made it into some facilities.
Bathrooms seem to be the least equipped for disability access. Some of the stall doors aren’t even big enough for wheelchairs to go through. And, I’ve found the bars sometimes are too high or low for some people.
When I first came to LSU, my mother wanted to attend orientation with me, but this simply was out of the question. While the campus is great, it is not very “handicapped-friendly.” I see some of the students that struggle with this every day, and it troubles me LSU hasn’t done more things to make their commute around campus easier.
I have seen some changes, though, such as the automatic doors on one side of the union. This is a start, but more needs to be done to accommodate the needs of the variety of students on campus.
My mom finally did get rid of her wheelchair and was able to come see our campus. It is wrong that people with disabilities don’t have the same access as other people.
It’s easy to take things for granted until you are faced with them. I didn’t realize all these problems existed until I was faced with them. This issue is facing us now; let’s do something about it while we can.
Rachel Miller
Sophomore — Mass Communication
This is in reference to the column “Let’s Talk About Abstinence” in last Friday’s Reveille. I am Christian, and I believe that premarital sex is morally wrong. This belief is not entirely based on faith; it is based on reason.
As mentioned in the column, many schools do not promote contraceptives, but “abstinence-only education” is not just based on religious beliefs, it is based on reason. The column states, “if this program [Governor’s Program on Abstinence] really aims to cut down on the bad side effects of sex, the moderators need to wake up to reality,” implying they need to teach about birth control, condoms, etc.
But, the reality is premarital or promiscuous sex does not have just bad physical side effects, it also carries negative psychological side effects. Most studies done by psychologists will report that our society, in general, is dualist — meaning we tend to separate the thinking, desiring and the conscious “self” from our biological self. In other words, we treat our emotions and body as two separate things that are not related. However, inherently, our body and emotions are inseparable, and we cannot deny this. For example, think of victims of rape. Although the act is entirely physical, the emotional and psychological scars usually take much longer than the physical scars to heal. By selfishly treating sex as simply a means for pleasure (either physical or emotional) and not as a means to bring life into the world — its undeniable purpose — we are denying the truth about sex, causing problems — emotional, psychological, mental, physical and spiritual — sometimes even unconsciously.
Plus, by using contraceptives, our culture is treating babies as a burden. The problem is many Americans are not educated regarding the reasons against premarital sex. Many studies have been done to prove the emotional and psychological scars that result from premarital sex. Just search the Internet. Lastly, our American culture has diminished the importance of self-control. Abstinence is all about self-control; you cannot always get what you want when you want it.
Jansen Rothman
Sophomore — Sociology
This letter is in response to the letter “LSU shafts students with clean-up pay” written by Charles Beard. I would like to thank Mr. Beard and his fellow students from Christ the King Catholic Center for cleaning up the stadium after a particularly poor showing by the football team. Having had clean-up duties following other student events, I know it is not a particularly pleasant job.
Contrary to Mr. Beard’s belief, however, his group was not “shafted” by LSU when they were paid $2,000 to clean the stadium. In fact, based on the university’s current pay scale, they were overpaid for the work that they did. LSU pays what I believe are beginning custodians (Custodian 1) $6 an hour, according to the LSU human resources Web page. If a custodian has six months of experience, it appears they are classified as Custodian 2 and are paid $6.90 an hour.
Now, assuming Mr. Beard’s student group provided 60 people for the four hours of work, they provided LSU with 240 hours of labor. If these students were classified as Custodian 1, they would have received $1,440 for their efforts. If, instead, they were classified as Custodian 2, they would have received $1,656 for their efforts. So in fact, Mr. Beard and the members of his student group are being paid a premium of between 20 and 40 percent for their cleaning services. In reality, the only group that is getting shafted on the deal is custodians at LSU.
Aaron Adamack
Graduate Student — Oceanography