Draft not unlikelyA military draft is not so unlikely. In September 2002, the White House released its new National Security Strategy, which said that the U.S. government “will not hesitate to act alone, if necessary, to exercise our right of self defense by acting preemptively” against states or groups considered hostile to American interests. According to the Dec. 11 Washington Post, “In a top-secret appendix, the directive names Iran, Syria, North Korea and Libya among the countries that are the central focus of the new U.S. approach.” If Bush continues to pursue this policy of “pre-emption,” or, more accurately, prevention, then the U.S. will become involved in more and more military conflicts over the next two, maybe six, years. Logically, this will spread the military’s resources thin, and at a certain point they simply need more troops to handle the ongoing war on terrorism, new preventative wars with other “rogue states,” and rebuilding/occupation operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. At that point, the draft will become a necessity. Rumsfeld naturally dismisses the idea of a draft because he knows how quickly it would eliminate support for the war in Iraq. However, the Bush administration’s official, stamped and sealed foreign policy puts us all on a path that leads to a different conclusion, one that should give students pause.
–Erik Gallant Class of 2004
Bridge should be removedI am a parent of two students at Rochester. One is a junior and engineering major and the other is a sophomore science major and music minor. I am paying the university a substantial sum of money in the way of tuition plus, which not only will provide my young adults an above average education but also a future in our society. The cost is a difficult one for me to absorb but what is harder for me to accept is the lack of responsiveness to a growing number of assaults on campus. When a responsible university such as UR turns its back on vandalism, robbery and students getting seriously assaulted and possibly killed then it is time for parents who pay the salaries of these department heads to stand up and be heard. I do not want to wait until one of these amateur gun slingers decides to kill a bright, intelligent and hard- working student for five dollars.
I send the message to those of you responsible for our young adults on campus — now is the time to do something before one of our students is seriously injured or killed. Responding quickly and professionally to a crime is not good enough for the tuition I and many other parents are paying. I insist you remove the bridge on campus connecting to Genesee Street, install camera surveillance equipment on campus at strategic locations, and increase the security staff with the mission to stop suspicious cars, stop people on campus and ask for proper identification and to check on those students visiting students on campus for proper identification.
We need to act now and not react to another serious crime because the warnings are obvious and the list of injuries is growing. Who will pick up this request and say we demand a safer place to learn and a safer place to go about our business in peace and harmony.
I look for the responsiveness of those in charge, of this great university to make sure this message turns out to be an action plan before another tragedy strikes our campus.
Thank you for your time and I look forward to the day when students feel safer because changes were in place to make college life safer.–Sue Masters
