OCR Text |
Show OPINION Page 5 Monday, June 26,2006 ;v.r:;: v :> . THE CHRONICLE'S VIEW ''''%*• ^ ; ^ ilJASU who? Student - ! committees could I 1 help you find out ,^ lired of reading about the nebulous ASUU; ;' organization without having the slightest ; idea what it actually does? You're not alone. In fact, your lack of interest in your student leaders puts you smack dab in the majority at the U, thus branding you more rep- •• resentative of the general student populace than most Associated Students of the University of A ^. Utah election voters. :: , This is why you should take advantage of : , ASUU's committee selection process, running now through Aug. n (applications are available in the .•* ASUU office at the north end of the Union). 1 The U has 22 different committees representing students in just about every imaginable way in conjunction with influential administrators and faculty from around campus. Besides ensuring the protection of student rights at the U and adding to your own student profile, involvement in most of these committees demands no more than a few hours each semester The Diversity Requirement Committee, for example, reviews whether or not a faculty member's course fulfills the U's diversity requirement for graduation. This committee consists of four members and meets just once per semester, yet the results of their actions affect every single student at the U. Other committees have more prolific tasks, like_;^ the Student Affairs Committee, which played a -• f crucial role in the election of current ASUU leaders after a breach of campaign procedures Spring . Semester. The Student Behavior Committee hears all charges of student misconduct at the U and imposes sanctions themselves. The University . Promotion and Tenure Advisory Committee, as the name suggests, makes recommendations about faculty policy decisions. These groups are important, and it would serve you well to at least familiarize yourself with all 22 by picking up an application next time you pass by the ASUU office. As it stands now, the committee sign-ups are barely advertised on campus, perpetuating the exclusivity of ASUU by allowing friends of leaders ; to win committee spots unchallenged. By holding £ the deadline for application in the summer, ASUU ^ has excluded a number of potential participants'--^already. The only way to hold the organization accountable for the cronyism and nepotism that accompanies any political organization is to make it deal with students like you by getting involved. Otherwise, with a $1.35 million budget, ASUU would become the world's most well funded tree?,, h o u s e c l u b ; . , ) V , , ; ^ , , , ; ^ , , , ^ , . •,.«• ., ; ,- :•..'"•„ Unsigned editorials reflect the majority opinion of The Daily Utah Chron'ctc' Editorial Board. Signed Editorial, Editorial columns and letters to the editor are strictly the opinions of the author. The forum cryited on the Opinion Page is one based on vigorous debate, while at the same time demanding tolerance and respect. Material defamatory U an individual or group because of race, ethnic background, reli-, r gion, creed, gender, appearance or sexual orientation will be edited I or will not be published. All letters to the editor will now be published, online at www.dailyutahchTonicte.com. Letters that the editor deems best represent those received will be printed in the newspaper as well as online. . Changing behavior is the only way to cure AIDS A few weeks ago, when the 25th anniversary of AIDS in America was recognized ANDREW in the media, it occurred to me that we are no closer KIRK to a cure or a vaccine than we were 25 years ago. Most of the discussion -I heard on National Public Radio about the progress that has been made in fighting AIDS led me to believe that medical research is not the answer to the problem. It was difficult for researchers to secure money 25 years ago. No one wanted to address the issue, and those who did wrote the disease off as something only homosexuals needed to worry about. Effective publicity on "innocent" AIDS victims such as Ryan White helped people realize that the disease was larger than just gays in San Francisco. The honesty of celebrities like Magic Johnson helped America realize that anybody could get the disease. What intrigued me most from the discussions I heard a few weeks ago was the story of how religious leaders had to be convinced to support AIDS research. Bono from U2 helped convince a television evangelist that supporting research was what Jesus would have done. Yet after overcoming all of those obstacles and raising millions of dollars to find a cure or vaccine, scientists are still emptyhanded after 25 years. One researcher explained that finding a vaccine might be impossible, since vaccines require experimentation in order to find a dose of the disease that will build up an immunity without hurting the patient. The AIDS virus adapts too quickly, and the experimentation stage might result in even deadlier versions of the disease. So am I wrong to suggest that all of those hard-earned donations have been wasted? ~ It-appears to be a scientific fact that— despite all the research— the most effective way of curbing AIDS is to change behavior. I wonder if Bono was right to convince religious leaders to participate in raising funds for research. Weren'tpreachers already promoting the most effective solution by merely promoting good old Puritan sexual morality? I would like to suggest that a good portion of the money spent on seeking a cure or vaccine for AIDS would be better spent on sex education. I heard of a rising trend in Kenya to make girls proud of their virginity: TYibai leaders in small villages reasoned thatTnedical services would be slow in coming, so praising virginity was a better way to slow the spread of AIDS. Global health-care advocates criticized this idea because the tribal villagers were unhygienic in their methods of testing a girl's virginity. So why not send experts out to educate them in hygiene instead of discouraging the practice? I recognize that these views are insensitive, impractical and old-fashioned. But encouraging changes in behavior is the preferred method of curbing most diseases. No one suggests ways of making smoking less harmful; people are simply told not to smoke. Doctors don't promote ways of reducing the effects of McDonald's; they tell patients to stop eating it. Yet the idea of telling people to cjiiit having irresponsible sex is rejected as an unhelpful solution. Until someone can show me that there's a better way, I will continue to fight the spread of AJDS by donating to my church. letters@ chronicle.utah.edu Follow the school gospel Your time and money are well worth it I hate to be the one to have to tell you this, but not all U students will be leaving here with a degree. Maybe they will flunk out, drop out, get married or have a kid. Maybe they won't be able to pay for tuition, will have an illness in the family or will just want to get started with their "life." But hopefully they won't get their degree because their daddy owns a dealership and they can mooch the rest of their lives. For me personally, I have .considered calling it quits because I am sick of homework, waking up before noon and paying for an education I'm still not putting to good use. We all need to reassess from time to time why we are making the sacrifices we are to be in college, and my time is now. The promise of a high-paying job and a pool is enough to get most students here. Some come because they want to make a difference in the world, others because their dream job requires it. Whatever the reason, it was good enough to CLAYTON get us here, so we might as well NORLEN let it keep us here. When the homework has piled up and you are working overtime at a job you hate, the last thing you want to do is wake up and make it to that 7:30 a.m. class. You just want a little me time. When all you have had to eat for the past month is Pop-Tarts and you are averaging five hours of sleep per night, school is the last thing you want to think about. So you don't, and before you know it, you are the manager at that job you hated for 40 hours a week—with a second kid on the way. It is at this point you would give anything just to go back and finish up that bachelor's degree so you could get that job you had always dreamed of and the kidney bean-shaped pool that came with it. Getting a college education is a lot like getting into heaven: You have to give up all the pleasures of life in the hopes of a better one. Only, unlike heaven, there are statistics and facts to back up the education theory. According to a study issued in 2002 by the United States Census Bureau on earnings by education level, high school graduates working full time can expect a yearly income of $30,400 versus a college graduate working full time who can expect $52,000 a year. That is the difference between living comfortably and just living. Individuals with only some college can only expect $6,000 more per year than someone with only a high school diploma; I paid nearly that much in my first year at the U. All those late-night cramming sessions and early morning classes will be worth it in the long run. There will always be time to sleep when you graduate, and you can at least survive on Pop-Tarts. College graduates can be proud to attend their high school reunions because they have a college degree hanging in their den and a job they don't dread returning to the moment they leave. Most of us will be sacrificing five years of our life's prime and thousands upon thousands of dollars to make those golden years shine all the brighter. I have never been a businessman, but that seems like a fair enough trade when you think of the difference an education will make in the end. I mean, you could have a kidney bean-shaped pool if you really wanted it; and who knows, maybe you might find your life a little more fulfilling, too. letters@chronicle.utah.edu LETTER TO THE EDITOR Burr needs to get facts straight Editor: I'm writing in response to Maegan Burr's article ("Former U student creates documentary about the definition of marriage," June 22). - What a strange, nearly incoherent article. Burr didn't connect the dots very well in this article, and there were several glaring factual errors. Starting with the headline, which she probably didn't write, but shows that whoever did write it didn't read the article. The article mentions that I am working on a documentary film about gay Mormons, NOT the definition of marriage. I do discuss the history of marriage on my blog, but that is not mentioned in the article. Then there are several areas that Burr probably ought to have fleshed out more rather than just making one-sentence statements without any information to back them up, such as: "He was especially vehement in editorials about the recent debate in the U.S. Senate on the definition of marriage." Oh really? What did he say in those editorials? Why was he so vehement? And there is the fraudulently attributed quote that was clearly lifted from my blog at www.stenar.org. This quote is attributed to Michael Quinn. My blog on May 30 said, *'Personally, I think it's rather hypocritical of the Mormon Church to lobby Congress to amend the Constitution to forbid gay marriage. Weren't they persecuted for their form of non-traditional marriage a little over a hundred years ago?" And the quote supposedly from Quinn read, "Personally, I think it's rather hypocritical of the Mormon Church to lobby Congress to amend the Constitution to forbid gay marriage. Weren't they persecuted for their form of marriage?" I'm guessing Burr never actually spoke to Quinn. Finally, she says I am following Quinn's book in making my documentary, which, according to her, "explores how the LDS Church looked the other way toward gay members until society began to frown upon the practice." That's not quite what V told Burr the documentary is about. The documentary is about the personal experiences of gay Mormons and what it was like for them to grow up gay and Mormon. Robert A Jones Alumnus |