Office of the Bursar needs to take greater steps toward privacy\nI am one of the graduate students whose Social Security numbers was stolen last year because of poor security in the Bursar's Office. It came as a shock when I went to pay my tuition this semester by check and was asked to print my Social Security number on my check. When I got it back, there was my number printed again on the back of the check by the bursar.\nThis infuriates me because it shows that the bursar has only made a cosmetic attempt to reform its processes. In fact, now that we have to pay to use a credit card, it makes the problem worse -- more people will likely pay by check to avoid the ridiculous credit card surcharge and each written check floating around becomes a possible identity fraud case.\nIf the Office of the Bursar truly respected our privacy, it would not keep flagrantly using our Social Security numbers as account numbers. The cry of "it's too hard to switch" just doesn't hold water. Other schools, like the University of Utah, have made the switch successfully.\nWill Findlay\nGraduate Student
IU should be alcohol free, an educational environment for all\nSenior Joe Matthews writes: "How many more students must die, and how many more fraternities and sororities will we lose before the Dean of Students Office listens?" ("Honesty would improve campus alcohol issues," Feb. 22). I can't help but agree. His description of the "gentleman's" agreement with the Dean of Students Office, where alcohol and underage drinking are quickly hidden with a wink and a nod, is truly horrifying. I wonder what the parents of Seth Korona and Joe Bisanz feel when reading these kinds of reports. \nI suggest a slightly different approach to his call for honesty. I urge him and others to indeed be honest; Stop hiding the drinking and face the consequences.\nApparently, Matthews and others believe the IU Administration can somehow change the laws that restrict underage drinking, or that the administration should join with students by openly assisting them in the defiance of these laws.\nThe past few months have seen shock and outrage at Enron and its auditor Andersen. I wonder if the executives at those companies first learned their ethics and equivocal approach to compliance with federal regulation in campus environments such as the one Matthews describes?\nApparently two lessons learned by far too many undergraduates at far too many universities are how to justify dishonest behavior in the subversion of state laws and campus policies, and how to effectively solicit the complicity of those who are, at least in the role of, supervising them.\nMatthew's concern that IU's alcohol-free policies are unrealistic and have created these deaths is, I hope, merely short-sighted. IU's past administrations led in the creation of an unrealistically racially integrated campus, and diversity in religious, sexual and cultural orientations from which we all benefit today.\nI, for one, offer unconditional support for those past unrealistic goals, as well as for the IU administration's current one of a truly alcohol-free, educational experience for IU's underage student population.\nJoseph Buchman\nAlumnus
Reader overreacting in response to Lewin's opera review\nConcerning Marc Gellhoed's letter ("Little Women review not addressed properly as an opera," Feb. 19) presuming the idiocy of Gabriel Lewin based primarily on a measly opera review, my question is, since when was intelligence determined based on being able to distinguish the difference between opera and theater? Gellhoed throws around words like competent and qualified as if he has the mental acuity to utilize such terms, and I would not have contested him if he had written a response to something of substance. But an opera review? Gellhoed, I hate to burst your bubble, but there are other things to life. Anyone knows this, and I'm certain Lewin does, too. In fact within the past two semesters, Lewin's writing palate has included topics as diverse as the Dalai Lama, fine foods, Burmese gems and John Ashcroft. If you want to challenge his ideological position, by all means do it. I don't agree with him all the time. But calling someone feeble-minded because he feels the operatic qualities of a particular work were not addressed properly is in itself a monumental ode to superficiality. I suggest next time you write a letter to the editor dragging someone's writing reputation through the mud, you add some sarcasm to your tone so we idiots can at least learn to appreciate the finer aspects of culture without the fear of being talked down to.\nJames N. Poeppelman II\nSenior
I-69 will be built, hopefully building a brighter future\nThis letter is in response to Jim Harper's barbaric ideas on I-69 ("The destruction of rural Indiana", Feb. 8). It is very important to understand the good that a highway can do to an area. Highways are lines of communication that bring people, business, culture and progress.\nHighways bring opportunities and bring better living to our citizens. In Indiana we need business, we need better paying jobs, we need a higher quality of life that allows our state to raise more funds without raising our taxes. There are many statistics that put Indiana behind the rest of the union in many important categories. These range from low high school student performance in standardized tests, to low median salaries. Let us not be narrow minded and stand in the way of progress, let us believe in liberty and in a better future. Most importantly, let us build this brighter future.\nJim, you are a business major, but you did not cite a single business source in your article that can tell you that I-69 is not good for business. I-69 will be built, and it will be another stepping stone in leading Indiana to greater things. Our investment from government only produces 81% of the money back in taxes for the government. However, it produces millions of dollars for hard working Hoosiers all over the state.\nThe government that I elected and that I pay for with my taxes has to build this highway. It will help bring progress to Indiana, and a better quality of life for all Hoosiers.\nAngel Rivera\nSophomore
Accusations of Planned Parenthood abortionists incorrect\nPatrick David Baxter wrote Feb. 5, "abortionists at Planned Parenthood force a woman to go through with an abortion even when she changes her mind" ("Lautzenhiser's abortion column inaccurate"). This is not true. All women who decide to have an abortion are required to listen to a script explaining the procedure and minimal risks, wait 18 hours, talk with an intake counselor the day of their visit, watch an educational video reiterating the process and risks, and meet with the clinic assistant for any last-minute questions. At any point with our support, she may change her mind and carry the child for parenthood or adoption.\nKelly McBride\nPlanned Parenthood of Greater Indiana
University already has mascot; History of the Hoosier\nThere's no need to find a new mascot for IU: It already has one, a "Hoosier."\nHoosier is a corruption of the Polish word huzar or husar (Russian hussar) that designated a light cavalry horseman. The name originated in Kosciusko County in the northern part of the state. Indeed, Thaddeus Kosciusko, a Polish noble who fought with George Washington in the Revolutionary War, may have been the first Hoosier.\nThe martial connotations of hoosier are strikingly reinforced in the Journal of the Kosciusko Guards by William S. Hemphill, who reports the Indiana regiment that fought in the Civil War named its camp Hoosiertown.\nWhat Hoosiers were, then and now, are people not afraid of manual labor, who are willing to roll up their sleeves and work together, and who are proudly descended from dashing light calvary horsemen who fought alongside the Father of His Country.\nOur mascot? How about a Hoosier on a white charger?\nEugene Eoyang\nProfessor of Comparative Literature
Murals a valuable resource to students, should not be hidden\nI remember the murals in Woodburn Hall from when I was a student at IU back in the '70s. It is probably a tribute to the artistic power of those (arguably) ugly murals that these many years later, I still remember the Klansmen in them. Personally, over the years I came to see the images of the Klan there, grotesque and ominous as they were, as a sort of protest against the cruelty and stupidity that the Klan represented. I am reminded that in recent years the American Nazi movement sought to purvey the idea that the holocaust never really happened. Rather than seeking to display what the Nazis had done, they sought to hide it, as if hiding it would make the evil the Nazis represented slip from our memories. \nThere is value in keeping the murals just where they are -- to remind us that we, as humans, are capable of incredible folly and malice and perhaps to remind the students that it is a value of education to know the past, and not to forget it and to be reminded to stand against "the evil men do." However, I would like to see the school paint something more on the walls that hold the murals rather than to take something away. Add something like, "I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.." (MLK).\nBernard Schuster\nAlumnus
Real art won't quit - an idea embodied by Benton mural\nTom Benton just cannot be buried deep enough. When the University installed the Social History of the State of Indiana mural in the IU Auditorium, someone had the bright idea of hiding the Ku Klux Klan panel more or less out of sight, thus Woodburn. The trouble with real art is that it just won't quit and here it is 60 years later disturbing students taking tests. Benton's mural in the Missouri State Capitol's House Lounge was also criticized because it broke the concentration of representatives trying to play cards. If IU wants to get rid of its troublesome Benton, the University of Missouri-Rolla would be happy to take it off your hands in the interests of higher test scores in Bloomington. For anyone interested in how Benton handled the original controversy I would recommend his autobiography, "An Artist in America."\nProfessor James J. Bogan\nUniversity of Missouri-Rolla
Artwork displayed not complete, should display whole mural\nI just wanted to respond to the person who commented that the painting in Woodburn Hall should remain in the lecture hall. First of all the artwork displayed is not complete. If you are going to show Benton's work, show it all. How can you specifically pick out a certain part of his artwork and place it in Woodburn Hall, and then the rest of the mural is somewhere else?\nSince the mural is an expression of Benton's thoughts and feelings, why shouldn't it go in a museum. That way people can choose if rather they want to view the painting instead of being forced while they are trying to learn in class. Everyone opposed to removing the painting is stating that the mural is a part of Indiana's history. This is true but, why aren't there paintings about the underground railroad which was very prominent to Indiana's history or women during and after the suffrage period? What if there was a painting of the Black Panthers hanging in a lecture hall, would our attitudes be the same? They are all a part of Indiana's history right? I think that there is a time and place for everything. Times are changing and we can't forget about where we have come from, and indeed this hasn't been forgotten by many. The place for the painting is not in Woodburn Hall. We all talk about the need for diversity, but I feel as though it is being forced upon us. Even a person who is not a minority at this school may feel uneasy about the painting because it represents something that they are not. Let's really think about how many people who have viewed this painting actually looked at it in a historical perspective. All that people may focus on is the negativity that the painting display.\nIf so many people are angered and upset by this painting, why leave it in a place where they are forced to look at it day in and day out? If you are going to display this painting it belongs in a museum, or if you decide to keep the mural where it is, then I believe that the whole mural should be present. When you really view how many students are feeling, this painting is causing more headache than educational value.\nTawana Brady\nSophomore
