College's IUSA platform\nHoosiers: It is with great enthusiasm that College wishes to serve you in the IUSA 2005-2006 government. By embracing the thematic approach of "Beer, Books & Basketball," we believe we can improve the college environment for students now and in the future here at IU.\nUnderstanding the only thing that rivals the academic experience gained in college is the social experience, our goals under "Beer" will make the college experience of every student one they will forever cherish. To ensure the social rights of the college experience, we will:\n1. Ensure the alcohol policy does not prevent students from attaining their academic and social potential while here at school. We will embrace our status as a "damp" campus and see that minor infractions regarding alcohol do not destroy one's opportunities here and after attending IU. \n2. Establish a privately funded Dollar Cab program to all students on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights.\n"Books" acknowledges the purpose of attending college is to acquire the best education to pursue one's goals in life. To preserve and promote this aim at IU, College:\n1. Seeks to boost IU's academic rating into the first tier of the U.S. News and World Report's college rankings in order to increase the number of professional recruiters on campus.\n2. Publish the course surveys compiled each semester so students can better know what exactly classes and professors have to offer.\nLastly, the theme of "Basketball" promotes IU's sports atmosphere. We seek to effectively embrace the sports atmosphere on campus as a whole and expand that classic Hoosier Pride by:\n1. Obtaining the advice of professional event planners to promote the tailgating experience for football and establish similar events for other sports. \n2. Reward season ticket holders of both basketball and other sports with a fan T-shirt and begin the steps to see that season ticket holders of multiple sports are offered discounts.\nThese goals, as big as they seem, are obtainable, and through hard work and experience, the College ticket is the group best able to achieve them. We look forward to your vote on Feb. 22 and 23. Yours in service, college.\nShane Merriweather \nCOLLEGE presidential Candidate
Connect's IUSA platform\nI want to inform students of IU that their collective voice will finally be returned to them. As a group of dedicated, concerned and experienced leaders, Connect recognizes it's time that accountability is established to the students from IU administrators. The athletics fee, problems with OneStart, parking, textbooks, tuition -- students face too many issues without outlets for concerns or a real defense. I want you to know first and foremost that Connect is the ticket fighting for what you need. The issues are important to us; don't let anyone tell you otherwise.\nIn the bold arena of IUSA elections, there has been a lot of talk about reputations. Kirkwood is being hailed as the "Republican" or "celebrity" ticket because of a large amount of College Republican members and its decision to include two IU basketball players, Ron Artest's brother and Maggie Daniels, daughter of the governor whose budget cuts could cause tuition to rise again. Are these ideal candidates?\nMeanwhile, others wonder if Vote for Pedro and What about Bobby? (named for our recently fired basketball coach) are even serious about elections or are just having fun, and about the Animal House philosophy of College. As for Connect, we can't even tell you about our label; all we can do is speak truthfully about who we are and for what we stand.\nRegardless of who you vote for, take the time to understand the issues and vote for those who really will fight for you. Connect encourages you, the IU student, to vote for your representation. Make sure the campaigns earn your respect and that your vote is not just given away. Together we can put integrity back into IUSA elections.\nIt's time to make an election about relevant issues, not who has the most friends. Too many problems have slipped by the collective student government eye line, and it's time for you to hold IUSA accountable. Check out our Web site, www.connectiusa.com, to see just how serious we are. We will connect you to IU for the first time in a long time. Get Connected.\nJohn Palmer\nConnect presidential candidate
Kirkwood's IUSA platform\nAs a student at IU, you don't need us to write you a letter selling our platform. You already know us. We've met thousands of you on campus, and our team has spoken with dozens of organizations. The Kirkwood ticket is about you and our people and what this campus desires, demands and deserves.\nFrom freshmen in dorms to upperclassmen in Greek houses, presidents of student organizations to athletes who are leaders on the court, we have formed the team needed to accomplish our agenda.\nWe have already begun to prepare IU for our changes by meeting with campus leaders and representatives from university divisions, such as RecSports and Parking Operations. We now know that extending the hours of the SRSC is possible, and we will eventually reach our goal of 24-hour availability. On-campus parking will improve with Kirkwood and the "Hoosier Hurry Pass," an electronic system for easy, ticketless entrance into and cash-free exits from university lots and garages. \nOne of the most exciting ideas of this campaign, unique to Kirkwood, is that of universal digital media access for all students. We have already met with and spoken to representatives of a legal file-sharing source that would bring students access to more than 750,000 songs, hundreds of popular and newly released movies and recently aired television shows. All files can be downloaded at near-instant speeds from local servers any time of day and stored so your files go with you where and when you want them. \nContinued work is needed with university administration as the demands of students are not being met. Students shouldn't leave college with a criminal record just because they wanted to have a beer, and we are in complete support of student organizations and the Greek system in their desire to relax the current alcohol policy. Students shouldn't be sitting in class, either, while friends across the country are enjoying a fall vacation. Kirkwood demands a fall break.\nA better college experience is coming, but it all begins with one vote: Kirkwood. Visit our Web site at www.votekirkwood.com to find out how.\nBryan Strawbridge\nKirkwood presidential candidate
Vote for Pedro's IUSA platform\nAwesome. Another IUSA election season full of recycled promises: parking, drinking and "bringing people together." Wow, never heard that before. We're tired of the same kids running for IUSA. So we put this ticket together in the last few weeks, making our No. 1 platform not promising things we can't get done. \nWe're not here to become governors, senators or even city council members. We're not IUSA veterans running a campaign planned over two years. We don't have corporate sponsors. We're not the College Republican ticket. We're not the RHA ticket. We're the people you see at Kilroy's. We're the people walking by you in the Arboretum. We're the people sitting at the table next to you in the library. We're not here to launch a political career or feed you empty promises. We're college students. \nAnd we have six simple plans to make college better. We're going to immediately publicize police policy regarding probable cause and public intoxication, then we're going to define objective standards for busting parties and stopping walkers. We're going to make the whole campus open to free speech because a Dunn Meadow "free speech zone" doesn't suit our between-class entertainment needs. We're going to create a volunteer coordinating agency so our work in the community gets the goodwill it deserves, and, as students, we can shed our status as town scapegoats. We're going to pair sponsors and our $200 in technology fees to make wireless Internet campus-wide and introduce the iPod as an educational tool. We're going to reshape adviser training so bad advice as freshmen doesn't make for unplanned victory laps. Using sponsorships, we're going to give free shirts to all football and basketball season ticket holders, as well as make soccer and other sports a bigger part of the IU athletics experience. \nWe don't have $4 million ideas. We don't have political lingo or complex campaign plans. We just want to do whatever can be done. But without the traditional recycled campaign, one question persists: can Pedro win? Visit www.canpedrowin.com and let us know.\nAlex Shortie\nSophomore, Vote for Pedro presidential candidate
What about Bobby?'s IUSA platform\nWhat About Bobby? has three main goals: \n1. Ending Mike Davis's regime and restoring IU as a basketball powerhouse\n2. Improving student life\n3. Ending the police state in Bloomington by limiting the jurisdiction of the IUPD \nThey didn't let us run our ticket under the name, "Mike Davis, You're Fired!", so the name of the soon-to-be victorious party is "What About Bobby?" What About Bobby?/Mike Davis You're Fired! is not only a political party but a movement here on campus. It is centered on making IU officials accountable for poor performance, specifically Mike Davis. Mike Davis is making over $250,000, and no amount of money can make him better. \nNext, What About Bobby?/Mike Davis You're Fired! will stand up for every student!\nThe IU Administration is contemplating the expulsion of an IU student for experimenting with gravity and a guinea pig while accepting millions of dollars from Eli Lilly, a company that experiments on mice and guinea pigs. What hypocrites! Besides that, we would like to set up tanning beds in the residence halls, sell vendor permits for food stands at the Stadium Express bus stops, and reduce all of those registration fees.\nOur campaign has been unofficially endorsed by rap artist, Mos Def, who is incensed by IUPD's treatment of students. We are in the process of bringing him to campus to speak about the police presence on campus and its detrimental effects on the learning experience. So when it comes to voting time, remember What About Bobby? because it's the only party that actually stands for something. \nEric Wolok\nWhat about Bobby? presidential candidate
Creationism not science\nI decided to write this letter in response to a number of creationist arguments appearing in the IDS that suggested or openly supported teaching Christian creationism alongside evolution in public schools. \nSo the analogy was made that the same faith in religion was needed to establish a scientific paradigm. I agree with this statement. However, this does not mean science and religion are the same thing. The reason we have a separate word for science is that its approach to interpreting the physical world, the community structure that validates the community's dogma and the fact that it is falsifiable makes it quite a bit different from religion. This definitely doesn't make one superior, but it does make science and religion different.\nCreationism is an aspect of religion and, therefore, is not science. The educated biological community is much more than less in support of evolution, and biology is science. Thus, to teach creationism as an alternative to evolution in a science course is to confuse this topic. \nOf course, this doesn't mean creationism shouldn't be in our schools; it just means it shouldn't be taught as science. Whether or not we require our children to study science is also a worthy question. Apparently, our students' studying it does not mean they actually understand it (as evidenced by a number of fallacies concerning evolution in the creationists' IDS letters.) Compromising, we could offer an alternative course that taught that God created the world in six days, chaos bore Earth who bore Cronos, the father of Zeus, and the world stands on the back of four elephants who themselves are standing on a giant tortoise, as well as other "theories" of creation. At least this would not discriminate religiously.\nBrandon Zerbe\nGraduate Student
Post-WWII not comparable to Iraq\nMy letter is in response to alumnus Doug La Vave's letter ("At Least President Bush Knows History," Feb. 8). My point is ironically also "to learn from history by comparing apples to apples." While I completely agree with La Vave's idea that Iraq and Vietnam are like apples and oranges, comparing Iraq to Japan and Germany is like comparing apples to carrots.\nFirstly Japan. The Japanese are a homogenous people; they are Japanese by nationality, race and language. Secondly, Japan is an island, which made materially supporting any Japanese insurgents extremely difficult. Thirdly, Japan's closest neighbors were China, Korea and the Soviet Union, none of which were going to try to attack Americans in Japan immediately after World War II.\nSecondly, Germany. The Germans were also a homogenous people; German by nationality, race and language. Its geography was also significant because its neighbors were either pro-Western or pro-Soviet Union and weren't sending or supporting insurgents to attack Americans. Thirdly, Germany was destroyed. Its major industrial cities were targeted and leveled, making the manufacture of weapons to supply any insurgents very difficult.\nFinally, Iraq. Unlike the Japanese and Germans, Iraqis were Iraqis merely because they lived inside Saddam's totalitarian borders. His favoritism toward the Sunnis isolated the majority Shiites, and his genocidal actions against and Arabization of Iraqi Kurdistan developed animosity among the Kurds. Iraq's geography is also significant; its northern neighbor, Turkey, isn't Kurd-friendly; its western neighbor, Syria, is accused of harboring and aiding insurgents and is a state-sponsor of terror; its southern neighbor, Saudi Arabia, has a strict Wahhabist-Sunni government that fears an Iraqi Shiite government (as would Syria); and finally, its eastern neighbor, Iran, is a member of the "Axis of Evil," a state-sponsor of terrorism and supporter of Iraqi insurgents.\nFurthermore, Iraq was not leveled like Germany, and its army was sent home with its guns, making the eventual assault on Americans that much easier. Freedom and prosperity may very well come to be in Iraq, but comparing it to Germany and Japan is ignorant. I suggest that La Vave read some history books and do some "honest" analysis.\nAndy Boland\nSenior
Use languages as powerful tool\nLanguages are powerful: They trace and document branches of human adaptation to change. At their best, they allow us to share and to empathize. How unfortunate, then, that I can express myself in no more than two languages and navigate but a few corners of our dynamic globe. Thank you, Brad Piechoski ("Immigrants must conform to rules," Feb. 1), for articulating with such clumsy honesty how tragic it is that we continue to fail to communicate as well as we could; and how sad that we have but the limitations of our imaginations to relay the ideas that swim around in our brains.\nI can offer only vague estimations of the strength that human languages can channel: the thrill of successfully approximating out loud that which defies pithy explanation (such as the push and pull forces that shape immigration cycles); the accomplishment of pacing and pummeling through turgid tomes to revel in the payoff of learning how much I do not know (such as the experiences of refugees, displaced peoples and migrant workers); the quiet joy of spilling the perfect amount of ink on a napkin-journal that can I carry in my wallet to remind myself of the some of things that matter (such as working in solidarity alongside those who survive in circumstances beyond their immediate control).\nWhat if we could relate with one other about the puzzles of today, such as citizenship and trans-national justice, with more accuracy and depth than the fumbled and insecure smatterings offered in last week's opinion pages?\nEl tejido enredado de los idiomas y las culturas se pueden desatar con tanta facilidad como podemos rechazar la urgencia de remendar todo lo malentendido. (The tangled fabric of languages and cultures can be untied with as much ease as we can reject the urgency of mending all that is misunderstood.)\nJuan Manuel Pedroza\nGraduate Student
Wealthy have seized opportunity\nIn response to Ronda Sewald's letter, "Those without $100,000 aren't lazy" (Feb. 8), I find her suggestion that those families or individuals who earn over $100K because of "the financial and social opportunities we are granted at birth" to be completely ignorant. Had she taken a sociology course, she would have known that income is affected ultimately by two key points: ascription and achievement. Individuals who eventually earn six-figure incomes earn that much based on a mixture of talent, hard work, job choice and opportunities given throughout life. To say that surgeons or business executives simply make that much because of birth is overlooking the fact of years of education, determination and the actual use of such opportunities granted to them.\nTo say that an extra 1% tax on those families earning over $100,000 is not a penalty on hard work is appalling, because it is. Families or individuals who earn less than $100,000, which is 95% of Indiana residents, are not making less because of laziness. In fact, such jobs as teaching, nursing, and secretarial work simply earn less money than other professions. \nIt is a simple fact of life. It is not because of laziness or opportunities at birth. It is because of life's choices. But in conclusion, the average compensation (including fringe benefits) of professors at the Bloomington campus is $126,500, while associate professors make $89,000 (according to IU fact book). \nMark Hoaglund\nFreshman
