Alumni Council is for students
To begin with, we would like to congratulate all students on the successful completion of another Rochester year. If there is one thing that binds everyone together in the student and alumni community, it is that we have all had our own Rochester experience and we continue to share it with others. We welcome this year’s senior class into the next stage in their experience ? the alumni family. We hope that you will all continue to keep in touch, use the career center, and support and shape the future of the Rochester experience.
The Trustees’ Alumni Council of The College is a group of college alumni who are dedicated to the life and future of The College. Together, we span 50 years of student experiences ? all the way up to the present.
In addition to making financial contributions, the Trustees’ Council commits time and expertise to improving alumni relations and The College in general. A subset of the Council is the Student Life Committee ? a group whose specific mission is to enhance and contribute to the current student experience.
To date, the Student Life Committee has begun meeting with student leaders and class councils, supported the senior gift drive and the opening of the campus pub and responded to student issues published in the CT. We hope to continue dialogue and correspondence with all of you in the coming months, and to explore how students and alumni can plan programs together, solve problems, and enrich each other’s lives.
We believe that you have knowledge that can help us and that we have experience that can help you. There are thousands of Rochester alumni who are interested in you and the current Rochester experience ? not just reliving their own memories and adventures. Among them is the Trustees’ Council.
We hope to meet some more of you in the coming months and think about how we can work together.
We welcome ideas and comments from you about how we can help to preserve and enhance what is great about being a Rochester student. The alumni community should always be a resource for you.
Best wishes for a successful end of the semester. See you in May at graduation!
– Sam Huber ’99, Don Brady ’55, David Friedman ’99, Kathy Murray ’77, Alexis Spilman ’00 and John Tanenbaum ’85.Trustees’ Alumni Council
Parking problems for faculty and staff
Tuesday, March 26, I had to park my car in Park Lot, also known as Zone 3 in this computer age. I call the far ? relative to Elmwood Avenue ? end of that lot the Jefferson Road Lot. Some might call it the Lehigh Station Road End. The Thruway is only a short distance away. You will recall that day’s weather was a typical Rochester spring day ? cloudy, rainy with a wind-chill of 15 degrees Fahrenheit.
As I trudged toward the River Campus, cold and miserable, I noticed a shiny white Parking Administration vehicle in Zone 2, just south of Elmwood Avenue. In the vehicle was a driver filling out his mileage report? No, even on a day like that he was dutifully ticketing poor souls who attempted to squeeze ever closer to the campus boundaries. And why is there a constant struggle for closer parking? Perhaps it is because the faculty and staff of UR no longer buy into the myth of so-called “Parking Shuttle.”
In any case, we all owe thanks to the Parking Administration for their dedication to preserving every inch of the available parking at UR for only the deserving individuals.
– Carl Whiteman, JR.Class of 1950
Alcohol not somethign ot joke about
While the national media devotes considerable time to the problem of excessive drinking among college students, the Campus Times includes a humor column which focuses mainly on drinking and such related activities as vomiting. This isn’t particularly funny, and it surely isn’t responsible.
Those who have been on campus as long as I have will recall allegations of a gang rape at a Theta Delta Chi party and a stabbing which led to the death of a student in one of the residence halls. Alcohol was a factor in both cases. No charges were filed in the alleged gang rape because the victim had been drinking heavily and did not have a clear recollection of what had been done by whom. The knife incident went to trial ? a murder conviction resulted ? and we all learned that the assailant, who was a freshman, drank heavily and often.
I’m willing to bet that if the full story ever comes out on the mutilated cat and or the recent rash of racist homophobic graffiti, we’ll learn that those involved were drunk. Does anyone think this is funny?
Impassioned editorials condemning date rape, animal abuse, vandalism and insulting graffiti lose a lot of their power when, a few pages later, readers are expected to laugh at stories of the alcohol abuse which underlies nearly all of the bad behavior. Let’s find something else to laugh at.
– Joan DavisAssistant Director, Center for Academic Support
Letters present sheltered view
I am sick and tired of standing by and watching or reading unfair comparisons and portrayals of the Israelis during this ongoing conflict in the Middle East. In the April 11 letters to the editor, Karl Wright and Joseph Farage actually have the nerve to compare proud, courageous Israeli soldiers to Hitler during World War II. This is absolute bullshit.
Wright sympathizes with the Palestinians, saying that all they want are their homes back. What kind of sheltered idealistic crap is that? Who pulled the wool over Wright’s eyes? Are suicide bombings and repeated terror going to get their homes back?
No, it kills them, and many innocent people, women and children included. Wright talks about being hypocritical ? he should first consider that these murderers that he is sympathizing with are not simply trying to live peacefully.
Farage’s letter angered me, as he wants to delve into the minds of suicide bombers. Does he also think that sitting down and talking with Osama bin Laden will do us any good? Would talking to Hitler be a good [way] to have understood his motives?
These people are murderers and are filled with hatred. Hitler, just like these Palestinian suicide bombers, hated Jews and wanted to murder us. Bin Laden hates Americans and wants to murder us. If ever faced with the option of talking with these two, I’d sooner put a bullet in their heads, without a doubt or a second thought in my mind.
It’s about time that people stand up and defend our people. Farage’s words and argument is moronic, insulting, disgusting and blatantly wrong.
These two want to talk about being contradictory. The UR Muslim Students Association sponsored a Palestinian rally last week in downtown Rochester which was full of hypocrisy. They claimed that Israel uses terrorist means, which is completely ass-backwards. It is the Palestinians who are responsible for many innocent victims of bombings.
I went downtown to see the rally and oppose it. As I stood proudly across the street from this disgusting site, I heard chants of “Palestine will get you back,” saw a sign with a swastika, saw anti-US signs, and was taunted and threatened. The rally was on Monday, and coincidentally was Yom Hashoah, Holocaust rememberence day.
As I stood across the street from the hatred and anti-Semitism of over 150 people, I thought of the millions murdered in the Holocaust and those murdered on Sept. 11, including the brave fighters on the fallen flight in Pennsylvania including heroic UR alumnus Jeremy Glick.
I fully support the United States and Israel. I think it’s about damn time these terrorist groups suffer for their injustices. It’s time to stand up and fight back against those who try to take the lives of our people.
– David LichterClass of 2003
Farage’s letter ‘swastika’ in words
In declaring that “Israelis are literally commiting the same atrocities that Hitler carried out against the world during World War II,” Joseph Farage d
rew a “swastika” in the Campus Times, just like the one drawn on the chalkboard in Morey 402. To equate a country attempting to defend itself from attacks to a country that openly sought the extermination of an entire race shows more than just ignorance, it shows bigotry in itself.
To compare Israel’s actions to that of genocide is completely absurd. How can you draw a parallel between Hitler’s final solution, which called the Jewish race inferior and demanded it be eliminated, and Ehud Barak’s final status offer at Camp David which granted Palestinian statehood and joint sovereignty over the Holy Muslim Temple Mount?
Is Ariel Sharon’s demand for an end to the almost daily suicide bombings by Palestinian terrorists tantamount to Hitler’s demand that Jews, Gypsies and homosexuals be massacred and burned to make room for the racially superior Aryans to prosper?
Joseph Farage’s statement is as much racist propaganda as are popular myths spreading throughout the Arab world, including the Jewish conspiracy behind the Sept. 11 attacks, and the use of Christian and Muslim blood to make Matzah and Hamantashen.
First of all, Israel has never sought the extermination of Palestinians. Israel has never set up gas chambers in an effort to kill as many Palestinians as possible. Israel has never constructed concentration camps across Europe for the purpose of genocide.
The racism and ethnic supremacy echoed throughout Europe during World War II has become a conditioned concept throughout much of the Arab world. In textbooks, newspapers, and newsletters anti-Zionist and anti-Jewish rhetoric is endorsed by school teachers, parents and even government officials. Articles in Saudi Arabian newspapers that describe Jews’ use of the blood of Muslim children to make Matzah is a simple repetition of the blood libel, which laid anti-Semitic roots for the Holocaust.
Israel has not utilized propaganda to exterminate a race, but rather, they have entered Palestinian territories to search for known terrorists, chemical and weapon-making factories, and most importantly, possible evidence or intelligence information to stop future attacks.
Isn’t the United States currently doing the exact same thing in Afghanistan? Is the United States’ search for Osama Bin Laden, chemical and nuclear weapons and intelligence information in Afghanistan equal to Hitler’s final solution?
Innocent people have been killed in every war, but isn’t it the Israeli side that has attempted to minimize the number of civilian causalities, while the Palestinian side has openly sought to target and kill as many civilians as possible? Why is trying to eradicate terrorism worse than terrorism itself? How is defending one’s people against terrorism the same as murdering 6 million innocent people because they are ethnically different?
Not only was this “swastika” drawn in the Campus Times during the week of Holocaust Remembrance Day, but it was drawn when anti-Semitism is at its highest level since the Holocaust.
So my biggest question is why haven’t there been signs around campus depicting the “swastika” drawn by Joseph Farage as a form of racial intolerance?
– Evan MajznerClass of 2005
Take a ride and see the sunrise
I recently read an article in the CT, which talks about places to watch the sunrise. As a bike rider, hiker and nature lover, I was familiar with many of the places mentioned. However, I think there is a roundtrip route that deserves some credit. Whether you are watching the sunrise, the sunset or just want to get out, this is a good trip.
The directions are for the sunrise. If you want to watch the sunset, drive or bike the trip in reserve to avoid driving or biking into the sun. Head out on I-390 south and get off at exit 11. This is route 251. If you are a very ambitious bike rider follow route 15 south to 251.
As you drive west on 251 the sun will be coming up behind you. Continuing west on 251 there is a rural crossing of the Genesee. Slightly beyond that, at the four-way intersection continue up the hill on Quaker Road to the top.
This is it. If the sun is rising stand and look east. If the sun is setting look west. For views of downtown Rochester look north. Downtown is 12-15 miles away. In your immediate view there is a cow pasture.
From there bike or drive back to the four-way intersection and take 251, this time north. Shortly after you will be in the quaint village of Scottsville.
Out of Scottsville follow 383 north to 253 east. On 253 pay attention for a turn off for East River Road to the north. This will take you miles and miles up to the back entrance of Genesee Valley Park.
I am not sure of the mileage, but when I was biking it and asked a resident I got the response “far”. Drive across through Genesee Valley Park, crossing the historic Erie Canal. Take a look ? next thing you know you are at a light right across from Wilson Boulevard.
If you have the time and like train tracks and interesting surroundings, from 253 go south on East River Road (instead of north) to Martin Road. Make a right on Martin Road and go to the railroad tracks.
This is quite possibly the most exciting find in the area. With the wind blowing the wheat, and the insects buzzing over the marshy ground on the side of the road, look up the right-of-way of the train line to see traffic on the Thruway miles and miles away. From there, go back to East River Road and go all the way up to GVP.
– Zachary FeldmanClass of 2003
Fix the flag
I don’t know if anyone has ever bothered to look up at the American flag flying just off of the academic quad, but if you ever do, you will see that it is very faded and badly tattered along the end. It is permissible to leave the flag up year round as long as it is properly lit, which the flag is, but with the weather we have in Rochester, I don’t think it’s too much to ask that the administration invest in a new and more sturdy flag.
I’m sure with the recent tuition hike, it wouldn’t be too much trouble to put a nice strong fifty dollar flag in the budget that will stand up to our climate. This seems like a pretty awful and easily correctable thing to forget about, don’t you think?
– David PascoeClass of 2005
Problems at Aja
Like many other students on campus who look for a quick, convenient and inexpensive place to eat in Rochester, I rejoiced at the opening of Aja Noodles on Elmwood Ave near 12 Corners. I frequented the restaurant several times before I noticed the ad in the CT boasting 50 percent off an appetizer of my choice or $5 noodle and rice bowls.
The next time I went to Aja, I was quick to present the coupon for 50 percent off an appetizer, however the events that followed were a perfect real life orientation on how not to run a business.
At the end of our meal, our waitress approached us and told us that the coupon only applied to meals eaten after 8 p.m. “It does not say that on the coupon,” I argued. She agreed and said I could try to speak to the owner but he was also the chef.
After a few minutes of waiting, the owner did not approach our table, and I calmly pointed out to the waitress that we would not pay full price for the appetizer because we would not have ordered it if we had known the coupon did not apply before 8 p.m.
Finally, the manager approached us and insisted that the CT was to blame for false advertising and still refused to give us the $4 discount that the coupon would have entitled us. He proceeded to berate our waitress by claiming that “she is not the brightest bulb” and overall handled the entire situation with an lack of respect for us, his customers, and for his staff.
Ultimately, he agreed to deduct $2 from our bill, $2 less than what the coupon advertised. Those two dollars meant the difference between my friends and I going back to Aja and not.
That meal occurred over three months ago and I still see that the coupon is in the CT. I am writing to adv
ise you to remove it from your pages or change its contents so no more students encounter the same problem.
I also hope that anyone who is considering operating a business in the future remembers that the customer is always right ? unless they have outrageous claims ? and what is only a small loss now could symbolize a much bigger loss in the future.
– Laura SimonsonClass of 2002
Remembering Lathan
I write to express a few thoughts about the late Roger Lathan, vice president emeritus, who passed away last week. I knew Roger for many years and, like so many others, loved him very much. To try and sum up the meaning of his life to the University of Rochester is a little like trying to pour the ocean into a beaker. Roger was a Rochest-erian, an alumnus of 1954, a Delta Kappa Epsilon and for most of his professional life, a loyal and devoted member of the University community.
But he was more than the net sum of his biography. His life included an infinite number of intelligent, graceful and productive gestures that were forged in a crucible of daily hard work in alumni affairs and development. A virtuoso at practicing the craft of being human, he had a remarkable ability to metabolize all parts of the human drama, the good, the bad and the ugly, and convert them into positive outcomes.
And, as with any virtuoso, he did it effortlessly. He raised a lot of money for UR, but in the process, he bound generations of alumni and other friends passionately to this institution. He was accorded several accolades by the University in the last few years.
In the week before his death, he asked me, “What did I do to deserve such notice and acclaim?” I told him it was no single thing, rather it was the exponential sum of it all. In that sense, it was who he was rather than what he had done that was most important and noteworthy. We should all leave such a legacy.
UR has lost a great friend and citizen. Roger Lathan will be sorely missed.
– Paul BurgettVice President, General Secretary and Senior Advisor to the President
Losing a resource
I graduated last year, and was fortunate enough to know Roger. He truly was a great supporter of the university.
Plus, the fact that he was at Rochester for the better part of 50 years gave him a lot of knowledge about the university. If you’ve ever had the chance to talk with Paul Burgett, you know the number of university related stories he can tell, well, Roger could tell more.
In addition to losing a great friend, the university is also losing a valuable resource when it comes to knowledge about the school.
– Ken DeMarreeClass of 2001
