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Show Wednesday, October 12,2005 Page 4 Editorial Editor in Chief: Maria Villasenor Phone: 626-7121 The Signpost editorial staff Flu season is coming As we are crowded together this winter in classrooms, offices and Utah Transit Authority buses, let us think of each other's health. Just like last year, it might be tricky to get aflushot. Weber State University heaJth clinic will not offerflushots, which now means going to a private doctor or Midtown Community Clinic. The Signpost urges the clinic to do everything it can to acquirefluvaccine for the coming winter. The WSU community members are often busy people coordinating classes, work and family, with little time to seek out afluvaccine. Meanwhile, everyone should take care of themselves and urge families and friends to get vaccinated. People in high priority groups should be vaccinated by Oct. 24. Those are the elderly, people with chronic diseases such as asthma or cancer, children 6 months to 23 months old, pregnant women and caregivers for the ailing or children under 6 months of age. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports say children are the ones most likely to catch theflu,but it's mostly the elderly and children who die. This means children with the flu can infect and kill their grandparents. Do you love your parents? How about your children and grandparents? Urge them to get thefluvaccine. If necessary, make the appointment and drive them to the clinic. Thefluis more than an awkward case of the sniffles. The CDC estimates 10 to 20 percent of Americans come down with thefluduring the November to Marchfluseason. Although most people recover, CDC said more than 100,000 people are hospitalized in the United States and about 36,000 people die from thefluand its complications every year. The CDC should expand this list to include anyone in a classroom, since teachers and students are often packed together like sardines in a tin. Walking into a classroom duringfluseason can be something like rolling in a petri dish of infection, especially when someone in the study group is hacking, gagging and snorting without even a handkerchief's assistance. We breathe each others air. We share pens. We often use the same computer keyboards, touch the same doors and ride together in elevators. Last year's winter virus hit WSU students so hard and fast, many people thought they had food poisoning instead of a contagious illness. The Utah Department of Health says influenza killed only 10 Utahns last year by the official count, which doesn't address entire study groups felled by viral infection. Unfortunately, this always seems to happen just before the project is due. Some people oppose vaccination, just won't take time or really can't come up with the $ 15 theflushot often costs. They're not off the hook, since they still need to stop the spread of flu Perhaps next year's diversity and other viruses by covering coughs and sneezes, washing hands and even staying home. conference will open with Rudyard Be socially responsible. Get aflushot. At the very least, buy some hankies. Kipling's poem, "White Man's Burden." Although I wonder at the choice of a white, maJe heterosexual as the Weber State University's Seventh Annual Diversity Conference keynote speaker, "white privilege" is a good topic. But it was a mystery why planners wanted Robert Jensen because he was "inoffensive." I dearly hope someone's ideological cage was rattled. An editorial writer at a recent Brigham Young University media conference saidmanypeopleget angry when introduced Energized by its attack on those annoying endangered critters that insist on living in to a new idea. If absolutely no one gets mad, the way of new shopping centers, the GOP leadership in the House of Representatives nothing worthwhile is said. looks ready to steamroll other environmental impediments as well. But this diversity conference lacked The latest excuse? Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. strident feminists waving coat hangers. The hurricanes interrupted supplies of natural gas, oil and gasoline. So House Republicans No militant African Americans inspired are talking about ending or modifying the moratorium that has prevented exploration and excessive politeness. No Chicano activists drilling in federal waters off much of the nations coastline, including California. sold "Viva la Raza!" T-shirts celebrating Any new oil wouldn't arrive for years to come, but maybe the pro-drilling lobby is ethnic pride. No drag queens or kings being farsighted. A more robust oil supply would certainly come in handy, given the possibility that continuing to burn fossil fuels will hasten global warming and increase challenged the gender divide. It was very sad. the intensity of future hurricanes. The diversity forum asking "Is Being Clearly, refinery capacity has not kept pace with the demand for gasoline. House Republicans are proposing to weaken the National Environmental Policy Act Male and Mormon a Privilege in the to get things approved faster with less study. Classroom" featured three Church of The worst of the ideas, scrapping the offshore-drilling moratorium, seems to Jesus Christ of latter-day Saints men, all have run up against the political fact that even ardent Republicans in coastal of whom said they were not biased. WhiJe states - Florida being a notable example - have no appetite for improving the I have no doubt each panelist would be sunset view from the beach by adding the silhouettes of oil rigs. mortified at bias in class, saying, "I do not But a widely reported rumor of a deal with Florida, protecting most of its coast, find bias to be a problem in my classes" is could endanger California. With Florida safe, its representatives might vote to end the not the same as saying, "There is no bias on moratorium elsewhere. campus." These gentlemen said nothing of At the center of much of the environmental evisceration is Rep. Richard Pombo, RCalif., chair of the House Resources Committee. The House recently passed Pombo's "Threatened and Endangered Species Recovery Act," a hasty hatchet job that would have been better titled "The Act to Threaten and Endanger Species." The country will have to count on the more moderate Senate for a rational assessment of how the Endangered Species Act can be made to work better for property owners and for threatened plants and animals. The rational response to oil and gas shortages in the wake of the hurricanes is to look for ways to be less dependent on petroleum, instead of denying the consequences of consuming more of it. Little diversity at conference The Weekly Rant By Kristen Hebestreet columnist | The Signpost San Jose Mercury News: Storms trigger thirst for offshore oil drilling the sort, and since WSU President E Ann Millner was in the audience, the professors would have heard later about any slight to WSU's academic reputation. Every panelist was basically gagged, since the panel could not admit to personal bias without affecting their jobs." They could not admit knowing any biased professors without provoking a campuswide witch-hunt. Asking these men about bias was like asking the three blind mice to identify the farmers wife. Classroom bias is often so subtle, psychologists have to film teachers repeatedly favoring certain groups before instructors realize their error. Bias is subtle, like the diversity conference logo that featured an apparently Anglo straight couple standing on top of the planet "above" the others. The male silhouette offered a helping hand to another polite person in the worshipful crowd below, whiJe the female looked stiff, useless and paper doll-like: active man, passive woman and superior couple. Bias in the media isn't a slant to die left, it's about what doesn't get covered enough to enter into the public mind, like the Bush administration's slow stranguJation of the Freedom of Information Act or the everwidening gap between rich and poor. Bias is who isn't in the movies. Watch crowd scenes for those missing old, ugly and physically challenged people. Fat people are absent unless either malevolent or comic Only the young and beautiful are visible. Lookism is the idea of someone beautiful being somehow rfibre worthy. To be beautiful is to matter, so many women endlessly seek perfect wardrobes. There's no official plot to kill off the elderly, but the Alliance for Aging Research, based in Washington, D.C., found older patients often suffer needlessly from cancer, depression and heart disease. Patients over 65 typically get less aggressive treatment for cancer or high blood pressure and cholesterol. Wal-Mart probably didn't plan to oppress women, but plaintiffs in a San Francisco lawsuit have evidence women make up two-thirds of Wal-Mart's hourly employees but only one-third of its managers. Higher management is more male-dominated, women are paid less than men in every region and in most job categories, and women take longer than men to reach management positions. All of these groups are invisible. WSU's diversity conference continued that tradition of invisibility. Letters to the Editor Freedom of speech violated The ,- , ^ Weber State University vveoeroLaie university Signpost Editor in Chief Managing Editor News Editor Sports Editor Copy Editor Features Editor Entertainment Editor Business Editor Photo Editor Graphics Editor Online Editor Advertising Manager Office Manager Advisor Distribution Publisher Signpost Fax Marfa Villasefior Jason Staley Blair Dee Hodges Jeremy Tyler Kristen Hebestreet Jesica Medellin David Fairchild Lisa Mann Mo Williams Brady Leaver Nick Litster Brandy Lee Georgia Edwards Allison Hess Austin Adams Dr. Randy Scott 626-7121 626-7614 626-7655 626-7983 626-7659 626-7621 626-7105 626-7624 626-6358 626-7661 626-6358 626-6359 626-7974 626-7499 626-7974 626-6464 626-7401 The Signpost Is published every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday during the semester. Subscription is $9 a semester. The first copy of The Signpost is free, each additional copy Is $.50. • The Signpost Is a student publication, written, edited and drafted by Weber State University students. Student fees partially fund the printing of this publication. Opinions or positions voiced are not necessarily endorsed by the university. • The Signpost welcomes letters to the editor. Letters must Include name, address, telephone number and the writer's signature. Anonymous letters will not be printed. • The Signpost reserves the right to edit letters for reasons of space and libel and also reserves the right to refuse to print any letter. Letters should not exceed 350 words. Bring letters to the editorial office in SUB 267, mail to: The Signpost, Weber State University, Ogden, Utah, 84408-2110. Attn: Editor In Chief, email theslgnpost@weber.edu ±. We are members of the UM (underwhelming minority). We would first like to thank the Standard-Examiner for "dumbing down" the point of our "inflammatory fliers" that were duct taped up last Wednesday, and for getting us some attention in the local press. Unfortunately, we were misunderstood and misrepresented. For those who don't know, our posters were torn down; reportedly by the administration of WSU for violating university policy, and we were threatened with a verbal warning and possibly a criminal trespassing citation. . We did nothing that isn't already out there. It was not hate-speech or namecalling (on our part). We didn't even come up with the content; we took what Phil Monson wrote and re-contextualized it into a rather clever poster to make others aware of what is being printed in our school paper. So, if you have a problem with content, talk to Mr. Monson. (Be sure to check out his letters to the editor on Oct. 3 and Oct. 7). First of all, we would like to request an explanation on how it is possible for us to be charged with criminal trespass. We pay (a lot) to attend this college. We did not sneak around after-hours with ski masks and tape these up: The sun was up and the parking lots were full. We would like to request a copy of any documented policy that states that duct tape is not allowed on campus. We have been researching this matter and have yet to stumble across anything that even mentions what can and cannot be used to post materials. We are also requesting that these policies be enforced on ALL posted materials. We took a stroll on campus to see if all of the alleged policies were being enforced and we were shocked to see numerous posters/fliers on the glass doors of buildings, posted on the outside of the flyer kiosks as well as having content that we doubt was approved by any administration member. Why was our material singled out? Was it not in line enough with mainstream beliefs/ideas? We understand the need for such policies to keep our campus clean and uncluttered. These policies need to be easily accessible to the students and equally enforced. We feel that our "free expression" has been infringed upon and especially in a college setting; that greatly upsets us. During our research on Weber's policies, we found an article (Student Code No.6-22 Article VI "FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION" Section A) that states: "academic freedom, the free flow of ideas, the right to speak'and the right to hear must be protected not only from censorship, but also from those committed to interfere with free expression through acts of disruption. It is the responsibility of all members of the campus community to refrain from conduct, which interferes with free speech. The University shall apply appropriate sanctions under proper procedural safeguards to those who violate this obligation." Our posters were, for the most part, posted next to existing posters and ours were the only ones torn down. Freedom of speech: What is that? - Stevie Emerson, Alicia Konzen, Dave Johnson, The Underwhelming Minority THESIGNPOST@WEBER.EDU |