Inaccurate op-ed on alcohol policy
I am writing to you today as an undergraduate student and also as the speaker of the SA Senate. That said, I am not expressing the opinions of the Senate, but purely my own.
I was very upset at Eric Meyer’s inflammatory opinion piece about Dean Levy in last week’s article for a few reasons.
First, I was disappointed to hear such malicious statements against a dean from a UR student. In the past three years, I have not heard the character of any UR citizen so viciously attacked and slandered, and I am distraught to hear such words coming from a fellow student.
Yes, we all get upset at unfavorable decisions, but his words were entirely unfair and shocking to me.
I had not thought that the atmosphere at this university was such to produce this sort of maliciousness, and if anything, this makes the students at this university seem less credible and uninformed to administrators. Indeed, there is no place for vicious attacks on this campus, especially when they misconstrue the point of an administrative decision from its true intention: to increase the safety of students.
Second, as a member of the SA, an organization which has tried to publicize facts about the changes to alcohol policy to students on several occasions, in several different ways, I was surprised at the inaccuracies Meyer expressed.
As this newspaper quoted Steven Chu on its front cover, ‘Every person is entitled to their own opinions… they’re not entitled to their own facts.” The facts are this: Dean Levy is not solely responsible for the changes in alcohol policy Standing Committee on Alcohol Policy and Education (SCAPE) is. Another fact: the $25 processing fee is a fee that is used to fund yearly maintenance to the system used for reporting and storing disciplinary infractions, not ‘perks,” as Meyer has unfairly suggested. It is well known that the Office of the Dean of Students did not involve students in the policy-changing process and that the office did not effectively communicate the policy to the students. Dean Burns has admitted this error, has taken responsibility for the situation and apologized.
Since then, however, the Office of the Dean of Students has made a number of efforts to clarify the facts, none of which Meyer appears to have taken advantage.
Since it is clear that Meyer has not made an effort to get answers or facts on his own despite ample opportunity for him to do so, I encourage him to speak to the Office of the Dean of Students personally and welcome him to attend weekly Senate meetings so that he may be more informed on the issues.
As a student who is informed, I am upset that this issue has steeped to a level as low as personal malicious attacks, and I hope that we can all move forward by addressing this and other issues in a more professional and credible manner.
Kierstin Hughes
Class of 2010
An enjoyable editorial observer
As a former Campus Times sports editor and managing editor from back in the Pleistocene, I wanted to write in to say how much I enjoyed Krista Lombardo’s recent piece (‘The CT consumed my soul”).
Just last week, I was explaining to my freshman seminar students how important my experience on the CT was (and is) to my life and to my personal development and how it’s actually a good thing to ignore the books every now and then (ok, a lot of the time…). I think I’ll share Krista’s column with them.
Arnie Miller
Class of 1978
