Show Alternative nuisance or in "Justice?" by Gilbert Archuleta opinion editor Mine summer past the idea was tosscaarounainaiinescnoot needed an alternative newspaper That idea became a reality during the fust freshman orientation Tbe publication Faith No More an "underground” newspaper released its fust and only issue Being on student government myself I found it ironic that the student body prcsi- endorsed such a thing considering TheEagle gets its budget from the funds allocated to student organizations which is distributed by ASCEU In the beginning ASCEU President Mark Justice not only en- dorsed the alternative paper but also wrotefor and printed the publica- tion I approached Justice with the idea that with him being president it would definitely be a conflict of interest to write for much less print and promote something that would be in competition with the school paper He agreed And for awhile the idea was lost but now another problem has raised its ugly head Recently a rumor has been tossed around that a newspaper club was being formed on campus However not one member of The Eagle staff has been informed of it Considering the school paper ought to have been the initiator of such an organization I had to question the purpose of such a club That was until I was informed that an altcma-live newspaper was to be released on Tuesday Nov 17 Whether that actually occurs is another issue but the purpose of this article is not whether or not the other newspaper will be released nor is it to whine about "potential" competition but rather to discuss the necessity of such an organization First why is an alternative newspaper necessary when The Eagle does not exclude the rest of the student body from contributing any arti- clc that they deem necessary Furthermore it is extremely difficult not to indict "our” president considering the whole idea was initialed by him Although Mr Justice claims to be disassociated with this form- ing club at this point he still holds his support for the idea I find it difficult to believe that the idea would keep its life without Mr Jus lice's motivation It is important to understand that the competition factor is not the issue Based on the first attempt at an alternative paper The Eagle has nothing to worry about The alternate paper at least the first one was released on a white 8 12x11 photocopy sheet of paper It wasunpro- fessional unsubstantiated and an insult to any college student's iniclli-degence However the aspect to focus on is the unprofessionalism and lack of good journalism If it was to act as a competitor to increase the quality of The fugle as was suggested by Justice it ought to at least attempt to exist mi the same professional level as The Eagle if this club does obtain a charier I think it would be a direct insult to the existing school paper While Justice has tried to break new ground during his term as president and has been successful to some ex tent this would be over stepping his ground I hope that he comes to his senses and decides not to endorse the charter for the simple fact that it would be a conflict of interest While I feel that the college experience ought to be one of new ideas and expression of those ideas I cant see any logical masoning as to why an alternative newspaper is necessary The Eagle is available to everyone and everyone is welcome to contribute The only difference between it and the "alternative” is the responsibility that must be taken for any article a student writes ASCEU has done a lot of good things this year and those should not be overlooked due to Justice's ignorance to this blatant conflict of interest nor should indictment tabs place on the rest of the student council what should be indicted is the idea that he is supporting a club that excludes an existing student affiliation that should have the support of its student body president If this "underground” newspaper was just that "underground” this article could have been avoided for an underground newspaper does not ask for school endorsement due to its "breaking the rules" ideology That is unless the wizard behind the curtain is a student body president nt "And now for the rest of the story by Tristy Atwood opinion writer In response to die letter to the editor from Erric Turner I have some responses to make It is truly too bad that Mr Turner does not agree with the principles of civil disobedience which states that if one is dissatisfied with die ruling government one should do everything within their power to change it Mr Trailer's article would have one believe that they are doing their job for the good of the students Well Mr Turner is it not true that all of those hours you put in are reimbursed by college credit as well as a pay check? First it was not my intent to show that the ASCEU was a tyranny Secondly the ideas expressed in my article were all sub stantiated by fact Mr Turner whereas yours were not Thefntflaw in your article concerning me was that I have only attended three activities Had this been true I would agree it would be none of my business to attack the activities However considering I attended the majority of the activities and those 1 did not I asked members of student govern-ment about the turnout I would say I was substantially informed I would like to ask you did you take roll to see if I was there? The next point I would like to address is where I have gaul to comment on their success or lack thereof If you refer to my article you will see the direct quote: "This is not to put down the many good things student government has done as the substantial groups of stu- dent who attented Taylor Mayson Main Attraction and the Saturday Night Live party" These were only some of the examples Mr Itarner was trying to say I said were unsuccessful So if you are going to fai- dite someone's character you better at least take the time to make sure you understand die argumentation Another question you say the activities have been successful Once again please refer to the controversial week of HaUoween even on the days not conflicting with the play Two announced activities fell through Do you remember pumpkin carving night or scary story i " night? I don't remember because they were cancelled So don't tell me that I am not aware of the activities on campus I have attended almost all of them that actually were held I think if you would put a little more time into fixing some of the problems and less time ignoring them more things could get accomplished Mr Turner would like you to believe that all of the activities on this campus have been successful when he states "obviously some body is going to our unsuccessful activities!” Giving ASCEU credit for the activities he cited he still has not addressed any of the activities I considered unsuccessful Mr Turner constantly uses the pronoun "we" throughout his article yet his article is not endorsed by any other student government members Furthermore he would like you to believe that the accom- plishment of student government can be attributed to them as a whole This is simply untrue Each student government member is suppose to have their own job and responsibilities So stop worrying about the activities and get your job done organizing and supporting the dubs Now Mr Turner writes "let’s discuss dubs” lets! Since my article came out Mark Justice has upheld his promise to get more dubs Must he always make you do your job? You would like the student body to come to you with ideas for clubs wdl why don't you do some advert- ising and give people some ideas far dub? 1 hope all of ASCEU doesn't have the same opinion as you waiting until the students have to come to them to lell them how to get their job done Now I tried to be extremelycareful to not point a finger at anyone student government member in my last article 1 am tony that YOU just happen to be the student government member in charge of dubs Mr Turner also refers to the diflerent atmosphere on ochcr campuaes well have you ever considered that their is nothing better to do than go home on the weekends rather than stay on campus on or in Price so tfiafs why we could have this "different atmosphere” Anther-more! (Continued on page 8) Letter to the editor Dear Editor Having read last week's Eagle I would have to think that the ASCEU student government was a group of tyrants that do whatever they want without any concern for the students it represents But being in student government I know this isn't true So what's the problem? Well I find it very interesting that the article written on the spook alley was written by a member of the theater department It clearly shows a slanted bias because of its lack of both sides of the issue: so in the immortal words of Paul Harvey "And now the rest of the story" I'll be the first to admit that we made a mistake by endorsing an activity before going through the planning committee Yet it wasn't ASCEU tryingtodowhateverwewantcdit was a new government ignorant of the proper channels to go through As for ASCEU promising not to schedule activities during the play this is wrong Both Eric and Kathryn have told me that they said they wpqldTRY PX Jfi schedule things during die play but due to student demand they felt Obligated to allow the spook alley to take place Besides does the campus shut down when we have a play? I think not! As for the spook alley interfering with the play I just don't see it We shut it down during the play in case the noise would disturb them Also we suggested to the people waiting in line to go to the play We even had a survey Wednesday during the spook alley that asked people if they came here instead of the play (NONE) if they knew about the play(4) now tint you know about the play would you go (7) The spook alley was targeted at younger kids who wouldn't be interested in the play anyway As for the rest of the article it gas a little personal All of us in student government are stereotyped as being "A bunch of self absorbed individualists whose only desire is lo increase their own social standings" and maybe we are Most of us spent three or four hours a day towards the end summer We getting things ready for school come took time off from worit to help out with freshman orientation We have launched probabl y the most successful voting drive in school history Wespendtime taking surveys of student interests We sponsor activities like having to elementary Idds come on campus remind them to be drag free 0 guess this increases our social standing among five to 12 year olds) We each spend an hour of our day in the (Continued on page 8) |