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Thursday, 10 April 2008 |
SGA less important than local, state government
I think too much responsibility is placed upon a fake government that the students never authorized to
represent them. The low voter turnout is a testament to that fact. Furthermore, I think the dissolution of
the SGA is in order. It would lend the onus of burden on the individual student to organize resistance
against policies and procedures that they do not agree with.
Too much responsibility has been taken away from the individual student and invested in a group of people that the average student doesn’t know or feel represented by. If someone came up to me and told me, “Hey, the SGA just passed legislation that says we all need to wear purple on Friday” I would disregard it.
I
don’t respect anyone on the SGA as a leader of the student body. When I
show up to the voting booth, I see the local and state government
elections as being elections that need participation. Why? Because the
local and state government are our representative governing body
whether we choose them or not. Opposite to that is the SGA, which only
represents a puppet government containing no legitimate power to rule
anything.
In the meantime, go place blame on each other over why few people showed up to the vote.
James England
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junior pre-professional biology major
Daniel Boone Native Garden thanks volunteers
The board of
governors of Daniel Boone Native Gardens wants to give a big thanks to
the 22 Greek Week volunteers who showed up to work last Saturday
morning. You did a huge service that will make the opening of our
season this May so much easier. We don’t know your names, but salute
your willingness to do the hardest, dirtiest jobs of the season without
complaint or hesitation. Your civic-mindedness is part of what makes
Boone so special.
We invite you to come back during the regular season and enjoy the fruits of your labors.
Nan Chase
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Daniel Boone Native Gardens Chairperson
Professor comments on hypocrisy in local drug policy
Thank you for
you recent stories on the campus tobacco policy as well as arrests of
Appalachian students for marijuana offenses. Rarely are students given
such an opportunity to see the hypocrisy of our approach to drug
policy. From these stories, we learn: 1) Appalachian State University
is unwilling to enforce its own policy on tobacco smoking near campus
buildings in spite of the dangers associated with tobacco smoke; and 2)
students will be arrested for possessing and intending to sell
marijuana in spite of the relative harmlessness of the drug.
Simple math demonstrates the ludicrous nature of this situation (keep in mind these are estimates).
There are approximately 15,000 Appalachian students. Roughly 30 percent of them smoke, meaning
there are approximately 4,500 smoker on campus. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
(CDC) estimates that between 33 percent and 50 percent of smokers will dies from smoking-related
illnesses; thus, between 1,485 and 2,250 current ASU students will die from smoking tobacco.
Assuming even 20 percent of Appalachian students smoke marijuana each month, there are
approximately 3,000 current marijuana smokers among our students. Of these 3,000 students, it is
possible that a grand total of one may die from marijuana-related illnesses (the CDC says there are
only approximately 1 to 2 marijuana related deaths in the entire country in any given year, so odds are
not a single Appalachian student will die from marijuana).
Comparing the death rate of these two drugs, we see that tobacco is about 990 to 1,500 times more
deadly per user than marijuana! In spite of this obvious discrepancy, the university police will continue
to arrest marijuana possessors and would-be sellers, and yet, they are “uninterested” in enforcing the
tobacco ban.
Meanwhile, those of us who are sick of being exposed to the harmful chemicals and carcinogens of
tobacco smokers on campus are told to use “positive reinforcement” to deal with this problem. I can
barely stomach the hypocrisy.
Ten years ago I proposed a six-element plan to my university to deal with this problem, once and for
all. The elements include: 1) banning smoking near university entrance; 2) posting large and visible no
smoking signs at each university entrance; 3) widely publicizing the new policy; 4) removing all
ashtrays from near campus entries; 5) enforcing the policy with police officers the first two weeks of
every semester until a new, voluntary anti-smoking culture took over; and 6) providing smokers with a
place to smoke that is not near any campus entrance. Unless every one of these elements is
implemented, the problem persists.
I call on university officials with the power to do something about this problem to do something about it
once and for all. I am sick of seeing marijuana offenders arrested while the people who force me to
breath in the harmful chemicals and carcinogens of tobacco smoke are literally ignored.
Sincerely,
Matthew Robinson
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associate professor of criminal justice
Appalachian State University
Breaking and entering safer than drugs
Why is it that
three Appalachian students are charged with felonies and are only given
a $5,000 bond yet Whittington, 18, whom only incurred $2,000 in
damages, is given a $150,000 bond?
I guess massive possession and distribution of pot and mushrooms is way
less dangerous than a dumb kid stealing some beer and a snowboard.
GO ASU FOOTBALL!
James England
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junior pre-professional biology major
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