Jordan River Forum

Context of quotes misleading The IDS might have been mistaken when it decided my recent appearance before the IUSA Congress was news. It certainly mistook several of my comments as newsworthy. Context is everything, and that was lost in the process, too. Since a number of students and colleagues have needled me (or worse) about what I was quoted saying, I thought it may help if I were to clarify my comments. The paper quoted me saying I have had the same job for the 20 years I have worked here and six different titles in that same time. Obviously, it's not true that I've had the same job, just the same desk in the same room facing generally the same direction all those years. My comment to IUSA -- much like the second clause of that last sentence -- was sarcasm meant to be either self-deprecating or simply modest. Perhaps it was neither. More importantly, the paper said I apologized to IUSA for the administration's failure to answer student leaders' questions. What I said was that student leaders fail one of their principal purposes when they do not think carefully about the issues they take up with the administration. I said they need to be selective in setting their agenda, that they can affect but a few important issues each year, and that it is their obligation to ask us good, thoughtful questions. In turn, I said, it is up to those of us asked those questions to answer them. If we mean what we say about fully engaging student leaders in the life of our campus community -- and I know we do -- then we should welcome students into our decision-making processes. Anything less, I said, should not be good enough, either for them or for us. And I said I was sorry for any instances in which student leaders had been pushed away or snubbed or minimized by administrators who otherwise might have chosen to engage them in real discussions about real issues. If that belief is problematic, there's not much I can do about it. I've always thought that way. I still do.

Sheriff only offended himself with comments Being a "Hajji-Hindu and Buddy Buddha," I felt that the comments made by the deputy was an attempt to offend, but the only person he offended was himself. Intolerance and ignorance spreads like a virus throughout society with ease, the hardest thing to do is cure it. Arbutus coverage disappointing I have been disappointed in the Arbutus since I received it. I find the yearbook sorely lacking in responsibility in the items it chooses to cover versus the items left out. For example, there are 16 pages EACH of Little 500 and the dismissal of Bob Knight, and absolutely zero coverage of Opera and University Theatre. How could the Arbutus leave out one of the top schools of opera in the nation? I don't belong to the music school, but I find that insulting. The yearbook includes photos throughout of students defacing property, burning a mock image of President Brand and being arrested, but it leaves out students who rehearse every day for weeks to put on a production. How is that responsible? Yes, it did include pictures of a Broadway tour of "Jekyll and Hyde," but in the same building, there were eight productions mounted by IU students. Not one was mentioned. There was coverage of "A Chorus Line," which is good, but why is the one show mentioned one that was not part of the season and performed off campus? The Arbutus chose to include one page of ballet plus some photos, but maybe their hard work too deserves a little more respect than that. You cover athletics thoroughly, as you should. You cover many student organizations, parties, and greek events, as you should. You cover campus events, even if they don't paint a great picture of the University, as you should. But what kind of publication pays so much attention to students being arrested, yet no attention to the arts? It concerns me for the minds of people at this institution who are apparently more interested in seeing photographs of drunkenness and disregard for the law than fellow students working hard at something they love. How many other organizations have you left out because you're simply not interested? There are likely many other groups left out because the yearbook's staff didn't find them interesting enough to include. Perhaps the arts would get more publicity if they were performing outside naked or while defacing property with baseball bats.