Fasion (writing) tips\nMemo to Patrice Worthy: leave the journalism to the journalists and the designing to the design students.\nForgive me, but I fail to see the connection between your conclusion that "people in New York assume fashion is for the 30-and-over crowd" and the sentences that follow, which outline your contempt for networking in your Sept. 19 article, "Selling youth to old people." \nYou whine that the only people you can talk to at the shows are "editors, writers and wannabe designers." How else do you suggest that the spring fashions be brought to the masses? As a writer, Patrice, I find it odd that you do not appreciate writers in the audience; also, weren't you there? And, as a design student, wouldn't you deem it appropriate for "wannabe designers" to be allowed inspiration from their mentors and idols?\nYou wrote another article entitled, "The elegance and absurdity of spring" (Friday's IDS). Perhaps you foreshadowed the theme of absurdity in "Selling youth to old people" in your grossly untrue generalization, "College students are the life-force behind most designer lines." I am willing to bet my life that if you polled the country, the larger consumers of designer goods would be what you refer to as the "30-and-over crowd" -- the "'I-have-been-doing-this-too-long' editors," "snotty PR assistants and really old socialites wearing bad lipstick and clothes," not the jobless, credit-less college students.\nAs a journalism major and a former Vogue intern, I love and appreciate fashion and I think you have a good eye for what works, but I find this article to be unresearched and unfounded.\nP.S. Honorable mention in Women's Wear Daily's college edition is a nice feeling, but it hardly warrants a school-wide invitation to Spring Fashion Week in New York. Please.\nAriel Kaiser\nJunior
Reconsider the Stanfield case\nI hope that IU reconsiders the actions against Dr. Stanfield. Dr. Stanfield has done an excellent job in bringing energy and accountability to a department that was nothing more than a "program." Before Dr. Stanfield came, I attempted to work with (the African-American and African Diaspora Studies Department) on research, but never received an open invite, with the exception of a few professors and students. African-American studies are already validated among scholars worldwide, but selective scholars need to step up and become leaders. Stop the talented tenth power trip and come together. Invest in educating students about African-American history and culture.\nRonald Glass\nAlumnus
Not all worship God \nNeza Rufuku, regarding your letter to the editor ("Silverstein preaches the truth," IDS, Friday), for whatever it may be worth to you and other IDS readers, I find that I can completely concur with your statement, "We shouldn't be afraid to stand down from our religious traditional chains of negativity."\nIt is also easy for me to accept your opinion that, "Some people in the same religion look at God differently because of their family upbringing." After all who will contest that the God of the Christian Methodist or Episcopalian will be considered not to be up to the same salvation snuff as the God of the Christian right wing fundamentalist.\nI take issue, however, with your statement that, "We all worship a God."\nIn this country alone there are some 30 million Americans who are either atheist, agnostic or non-churched. Most do not worship any particular God.\nYet, you are most likely right when you say that, "We all seek happiness."\nPlease note, however, many do find it despite the fact that they were capable of standing down from both a God and a religion totally.\nEmmanuel Klein\nBloomington resident
Don King v. Rodney King
The response to my letter by Mr. Amulung ("Matching your ethnicity with your khakis," IDS, Friday), did not surprise me at all. In fact, it is the typical reaction I would expect. Mr. Amulung tries to blur the line between being a racist and being a bigot, which in my opinion are two different things. One has bigoted ideas, the other has the power to enact those ideas. The only thing I did take away from the editorial was the idea to print up personal business cards that say, "high-profile racial activists," which, in Mr. Amulung's opinion, I am. \nHe continues to blur the facts by saying there is some type of racial harmony on this campus and here in the United States and that I am just some rebel rouser looking to "turn races against each other." Frankly, I have no clue what planet you live on Mr. Amulung, but racial tensions existed before I was born, while I'm living on this earth and probably after I live this earth. And none of these tensions are the fault of myself or any other minority groups. Just as Malcolm X said, "We didn't land on Plymouth rock, Plymouth rock landed on us."\nMr. Amulung then has the audacity to question what am I doing to help race relations. For him and all my other admirers out there I am co-director of the Multicultural Outreach Recruitment Educators program out of the Office of Admissions. The program's goal is to recruit underrepresented groups to this campus. I can already hear the outcries from Mr. Amulung and his cohorts of "Why is there a special program to recruit underrepresented populations and not whites?" There is already an answer for that -- just look around . \nAnd one more thing: next time you choose to quote someone, please correctly do it. Rodney King said, "Can't we all just get along?" not Don King as you insisted, but I guess all black people are alike to you.\nRashaan D. Bartlet\nJunior
To those who claim to have an open mind\nDespite living a couple hundred yards from the education building, in my first month as a student at IU, I have met very few students I would feel comfortable having teach my children, if I had children. This is because the student body of IU has lost a pinnacle of civilization, that being civil conversation. In my dormitory and in the dining areas, any conversation not regarding academics seems to invariably turn to sex, drugs and/or alcohol within minutes.\nIt is quite apparent that our fellow students are beginning to carry this ignoble practice beyond inter-student interactions to their professor-student interactions. When students with no sense of propriety are confronted with something they do not like, they immediately revert to whinny, kvetching children, as apparent in many a student's remarks toward professor Eric Rasmusen among others.\nHow different is it for a grammar school student to call his peer a "square," and for a college student to call another student or a professor a "homophobe"? First of all, neither word is being properly applied. Geometry students will know that a "square" is in fact a shape, not a person; and perhaps a few bright students with a little Greek background will know that etymologically the word "homophobia" implies a fear of something that is the same. If I am a homophobe, I am afraid of people like me.\nBut the real issue here is that both words can only be used as a manipulative ad hominem attack; there is no place for such accusation in honest civilized discourse.\nSo why don't we all grow up and be men and women, and argue with each other like men and women? For your own sake, stand up and respect yourself and respect your professors. Or are you afraid that you will try to stand and find out you have no ground to stand on? Or are you more afraid to acknowledge that professor Rasmusen is standing firm on his words, facts and statistics?\nAbram Hess\nFreshman
Living on campus rules
George Lyle's Wednesday article comparing the benefits of living off-campus as opposed to on campus is a gross distortion of the facts. Mr. Lyle makes it appear that living off-campus is much cheaper than living on campus. However, there are several important things that he leaves off the bill for off-campus residents, and other things are gross misrepresentations.\nFirst, Read Center is not the cheapest place to live. I live in Forest Quad, and the price of a double single in Forest is $268 less than one in Read. Additionally, the double singles in Forest are larger than those in Read. In addition, Lyle presents the cost of "a meal plan" costs $3,200. He fails to mention that the meal plan he speaks of is the MEGA plan, which is more food than most people really need. I had a C plan last year, and I had $300 points left at the end of the year (a C plan costs a mere $2390). That brings the cost down to $7,662, compared to the $7,276 that it supposedly costs to live off-campus. However, that does not include the price of incidental maintenance and cleaning supplies. It also does not include the time necessary to clean toilets, scrub the bathtub, and mow the lawn. On-campus residents do not have to do any of those things. Off-campus students must worry about whether or not their car will start in the morning, or if they will be able to make it to the bus stop on time. Students living on campus do not need to worry about these things.\nThe campus is a center for study, friendship and recreation. You can have your $400 (if it even is that large of a difference between the costs), and I would much rather live where my friends are, where food is fast and easy, and where I can get to class, recreation centers, the Main Library, and other campus resources are easily accessible.\nStephan Jerabek\nSophmore
Reducing paper usage at IU\nThe soaring consumption of paper at IU threatens the health of forests as much as the Healthy Forests Initiative. According to recent statistics (available at the WWF Web site), an average person in the U.S. uses 375 kg of paper made from nine trees every year and the numbers continue to increase. Since the consumption of a university student is higher than that of an average American \nperson, we are contributing to the logging of more trees every year than we can ever aspire to replace. The rapid pace at which forests are undergoing metamorphoses from oxygen producers to paper mill polluters is appalling: 80 percent of the world's original forests have already disappeared and 95 percent of the old growth forests in the United States are lost forever. Half of the trees lost in North America owe their hastily terminated lives to paper making.\nThe destruction of forests, as is common knowledge, has serious repercussions not only for wildlife but also for human beings. Since the loss of forests is not divorced from other environmental issues, besides the loss of biodiversity and our natural heritage, it also threatens human habitats and entire ecological systems. \nOne convenient and effective way to help save forests is to recycle, but since paper cannot be recycled indefinitely, the only long-term solution to saving the forests lies in reducing paper wastage. Reducing paper wastage does not require radical measures; it simply involves availing of existing technology like duplex printing, photocopying on both sides of paper, using single space whenever possible and eliminating printouts of materials readily accessible on the Internet. \nSimple steps like urging local officials to boost recycling and encouraging community members to reduce paper wastage can go a long way in preserving the last remains of wilderness. I strongly urge the students, faculty and staff at IU to make a joint effort toward reducing paper consumption by requesting University officials to activate duplex printing in all University labs and boost recycling all over campus.\nSheeba Madan\nSenior
Neither hating nor fearing homosexuals\nRegarding professor Rasmusen's thoughts on his personal page: most, if not all of the comments made by letters to the IDS have focused on professor Rasmusen himself without approaching the underlying topic whether homosexuality is morally wrong, and why or why not? \nThe question is simply whether or not homosexual activity is in contradiction to Biblical morality. Many say that the Bible does not mention or condemn homosexuality: this is not true. God's Word states clearly in both the Old and New Testament that homosexuality is regarded by God as a sinful activity. Those who adopt a homosexual lifestyle are giving in to their own sinful temptations, the same as those who entangle themselves in heterosexual lust.\nHowever, Christians are to neither hate nor fear homosexuals. Though it is clearly sinful, it is certainly not the only thing that God despises: pride, heterosexual lust, hatred (including hatred toward those who give in to their homosexual temptation) and many other sins enslave people and violate Biblical morality. While required to speak truthfully about actions God has said is wrong, Christians are to show love for unrepentant sinners of all kinds, because we have been shown so much mercy for our own wickedness. We cannot deny our friends the opportunity to receive God's forgiveness and love. The Bible does not merely condemn those practicing homosexuality without hope: forgiveness is offered by God for all sins. \nI am not uncomfortable around homosexuals and I do not despise them; however, they are not leading righteous lives. Love requires that we speak the truth about God's Word; we cannot be silent or lie about what the Bible presents. \nNot writing this letter -- allowing people to continue to live in their sin and under God's wrath -- would be a true act of hatred.\nDan Gelok\nSenior
Nothing to do with homosexuality\nI have been following the letters in the IDS regarding the Web log debate. As more and more people voice their opinions, I think that we are straying further and further from the real issue, which itself has absolutely nothing to do with homosexuality. The simple fact of the matter is that a member of the IU faculty took the liberty of publishing, on an IU Web page, a statement which was derogatory to members of the IU faculty and student body. Even though homosexuality is currently a political "hot topic," the statement itself has nothing to do with one's sexual preferences -- what if (as examples) the good professor had said that Jews or Asians or women were unfit to teach? The very simple, glaring truth of the issue is that this faculty member made an attack based on unfair generalizations to a specific group of people. Is this what the University touts as tolerance of diversity?\nJamie Brazel\nFreshman
Blog be gone\nEric Rasmusen may have the right to say anything he wants about anything or anyone he wants to. That's not in dispute. But my question is this: if Rasmusen posted something on his Web site suggesting that he supported the Nazi party, would IU be putting free speech ahead of student complaints? I would suggest that the school mandate that Rasmusen move his page off of school servers. If he wants to pay for Web hosting of his own, to spread his message against homosexuality, fine. Go for it, professor. But it's my understanding that IU web space is funded through student money and donations from alumni. It seems to me that if the students, and the public, are rallying against these statements, perhaps their voices should be heard. And Rasmusen's words should come from a non-University sanctioned Web server.\nJonathan Sanders\nAlumnus
Thanks from Iraq\nGreetings from Baghdad. I am a National Guard soldier from B Co 1-152 Infantry Batallion located in Baghdad at the moment. We have been here since February. My unit has been here since beginning of the war and was conducting operations with a special forces unit. Currently, I am providing force protection in Camp Victory, Iraq. I just wanted to write and say thank you to the IU administration, IDS, students and faculty for the support and care package I received. It means a lot to hear from people back home, and I truly thank all who support us. We have a tough job to do, and I look forward to returning back to IU by the 2004 fall semester. Thanks.\nNathan Cantwell\nCamp Victory\nBaghdad, Iraq
Thanks IUSA\nI am so glad the IU Student Association exists. Without this vital organization, who would work tirelessly to reduce the cost of football tickets? I know I lose sleep every night over the skyrocketing cost of sports tickets.\nBetter yet, we have the IUSA to thank for keeping the buses running late at night so drunken students can vomit in the back of a public bus instead of the front yard of some random citizen's house. After all, this is the regime who promised us "beer and books." It's no wonder we are among the most prestigious party schools in the nation. My parents are thrilled.\nHowever, it seems the IUSA has found itself in a moral quagmire with regards to pot use. It refuses to allow GRIF funding for CALM to hold a festival protesting marijuana prohibition.\nEven though no one has ever died from the short- nor long-term effects of the drug, even though the antiquated gateway theory makes no statistical sense (there is a difference between correlation and causation), even though alcohol is more prone to generate violent or anti-social behavior in the user. And even though the United Nations over the summer rejected America's 70-year policy of prohibition, because, surprise surprise, prohibition doesn't work. (I thought we learned this in the 1920's). The IUSA just can't stomach the idea of people voicing their opposition to this neolithic law. \nSo I suppose the message to the student body is clear: You can drink moonshine until your liver explodes and you are attempting to sleep with anything with at least one leg. The school will even pay for your ride home. But voicing political opposition to a policy that has proven to be catastrophic to our freedom, to our economy, and to our way of life, and suddenly there isn't a penny to spare.\nRobert DeVries\nJunior
