Bursar billing agreement not acceptable\nI learned this afternoon that the IU Bookstore will no longer be allowing anyone but a select few on financial aid and student athletes to bill their semester books to their bursar. This has resulted because of the disagreement between T.I.S. and the IU bookstore about competition. This is really inconvenient for me, and personally I think a bit unfair. I was hoping that you, as the voice for the students, would write about this and speak out against it. It's important that the school not think this is an acceptable solution.\nKylie Stanley\nSophomore
Kids don't belong at parents' protests
Being invested in women's rights issues, I have seen my share of abortion protests. Every time, I catch something different. This time was no exception. The abortion rally near Ballantine Hall was particularly disturbing, not for the same rhetoric of pro-lifers against pro-choicers, but for something entirely separate.\nParents: What in God's name are you doing making your 5-year-old children stand in front of large billboards that have bloody aborted fetuses on them?! I am sorry, but pro-life or pro-choice, no child that young needs to be exposed to something like that.\nThink how you would have felt, if when you were a wee one, your mother had shown you a book full of pictures of dead fetuses and consoled you with stories of how an abortion is performed. At the hearty age of 5, I believe I would have been scarred for life. Children shouldn't have to be exposed to the political mess that their parents choose to get involved in.\nThey should be thinking about playtime, cartoons, happy thoughts for goodness sake, not aborted fetuses and shouting things like "You're going to hell" at people. The army gear they dressed the kids in was also a nice touch. I'm sure when they grow older we'll hear about them again ... found in some house in Montana, with a mini-arsenal at their disposal. But that's later; this is now. \nParents, please, I beg you, leave your kids out of issues like these. If you believe in life being so beautiful, then let your kids enjoy their life, not be a sidekick or window dressings for your graphic crusades, whatever they may be.\nHeather Copeland\nJunior
God comes in many forms of love\nWhen I was growing up, I had this idea of what God was supposed to be. It came from church, from CCD (Catholic religious education), from my great Aunt Marge's prayer book. The torturous part about this idea was that I didn't believe in it. I hated going to church because I felt so badly that I was not able to close my eyes and be engulfed in God's love like everyone else could.\nGrowing up Catholic was difficult for me. My parents weren't terribly religious, and church became more of a Sunday morning burden because it happened so irregularly. And for a child being taught every week at CCD about God's sacrifices and God's unconditional love and the bare minimum he asks of me is to give him one hour a week, the Catholic guilt came quickly and heavily.\nAs years went by and CCD classes mercifully ended, my appearances in church were reduced to Christmas masses. I still have that idea of what God is supposed to be, what he's supposed to mean to me, in my head. But I don't have a relationship with God.\nFor a long time, I thought I didn't believe in God purely because of logical or scientific reasons. Evolution overrides Adam and Eve, space travel over Heaven.\nBut Thursday, I realized the reason I don't believe there is a God -- at least not the one I have imagined since I was four -- is because of the people who do believe there is a God, specifically those who dotted the campus Thursday morning. The group who holds posters of aborted fetuses and protests homosexuality and other sinful behaviors I guess us students are being singled out for. And they do it in the name of God.\nI don't want their God. I don't want to love a God whose followers are moved to preach hatred while hiding behind Bible verses and an antiquated view of what American culture should be. I don't want a God represented by institutions that only respect the love between a man and a woman. The one thing this world needs is more love. Why deny it in places where it actually exists?\nSo enough. Enough with the posters. Enough with the scoldings and declaration of sins. Enough hatred. It's tiring living in a society so divided.\nThe only part of the God in my head that I still believe in is the part about love. Everything he created came out of that love, right? So isn't the most important thing God gave us the ability for a human to love another human? If God didn't want us to love everyone, he wouldn't have given us the ability.\nMegan Bourke\nSophomore
Benton mural should be covered up\nThere were many things that the audience could take away from the Rev. Al Sharpton's lecture at IU. One of the most resonating, in my opinion, was not a national issue, but rather one that hit much closer to home. During the question-and answer-session, an IU student asked Sharpton for help in pressuring IU to remove the mural featuring the Ku Klux Klan from Woodburn Hall. \nPersonally, I watched the video about the painting during freshman orientation and promptly forgot about it. This is obviously not the case for everyone in the student body. So why is this still an issue? We pride ourselves on diversity and a campus that welcomes free and intellectual debate. Let's prove it. None of us think the KKK is anything to glorify and celebrate, but many IU students feel personally assaulted when they enter the classroom. \nCollege is a time when we should wrestle with difficult intellectual concepts, which can be an uncomfortable experience. Nobody, however, should ever feel threatened or attacked simply stepping into a classroom. That is absolutely unacceptable. If it can't be safely removed, fine. Let's put a curtain over it. \nI'm not suggesting we gloss over that rather unpleasant aspect of Indiana's history. Instead, why don't we work together to ensure that IU is a campus where everyone feels free and welcome and then continue to discuss the hard issues? If an IU student can make this a priority so close to finals, then I don't think it unreasonable that the rest of us do as well.\nStormie Foust\nSophomore
Evaluations are serious business\nFilling out teacher evaluations is a ritual to which we give little thought, but it is an opportunity to improve college teaching and reward committed instructors. The quality of a class, though, is not a product of the instructor alone, but of the instructor, the students and the dynamics between them. In other words, you are a critical part of the quality of your courses, and your evaluations should include an honest self-evaluation. (If there is little interaction, tell them to put the class on video and forget it.)\nWe instructors don't want glowing evaluations as much as civil, thoughtful and constructive comments. We all mean well, work hard and care about how good an educational opportunity we provide. We want to get better, and you can help.\nYour comments can justify hirings and firings -- they impact people's careers and lives. Please take that responsibility very seriously. \nSome tips: Assume the reader will heed your advice -- speak persuasively, specifically and reasonably. "I couldn't finish the homework in three hours" beats "She gave too much work." Did you give the instructor a chance to address the problem? "I approached her about neither the work load nor how to study more efficiently." \nBe forthright about your effort. Don't blast a professor if you didn't put in the effort necessary to succeed.\nMany students judge classes by whether they were "interesting" or "entertaining," as if classes were sitcoms. They aren't. If your doctor can't save you because the hemorrhages course was dull, at least you'll understand.\nDon't confuse grades with learning. "Fun" instructors often get high evaluations without pushing you. You deserve better. "I got A's for mediocre work. Readings were simplistic."\nYou're in college freely, so all classes are electives, opportunities for learning something you've chosen to learn. Has the instructor facilitated your learning? Or has she had to coax and coddle, threaten and bully her way to get you to learn what you should want to learn anyway? \nUnderstand that some sequence of classes isn't an education. You take an education. We're here to help, but we can hardly make you learn something you don't want to. \nDoyle Stevick\nGraduate student
Little 500 partcipants, sponsor make 'spirit' great\nYour staff editorial of April 18, "The Wonder of Little 500 Spirit," reflects a deep understanding of what IU Student Foundation and the Little 500 are all about. Indeed, one of the characteristics of IU is great student leadership in projects and programs of real worth. Dance Marathon, Union Board Programs, IU Student Association, the Student Athletic Board, the Student Alumni Association, Council for Advancing Student Leadership, Residence Halls Association, Interfraternity Council and Pan Hellenic, etc., etc. and, yes, the Indiana Daily Student, are suffused with dedicated, thoughtful and talented members of the student body who make them great successes.\nThe commitment it takes to carry off complex projects and programs is what creates stakeholders in them and stakeholders in the University. The "ownership" students develop at and in IU guarantees continued interest in and concern for the University as they become alumni. Time after time when an alumnus steps up to lead or to support IU, her/his background reflects constructive engagement dating back to their student days.\nIt is not an accident that more than 100,000 IU alumni and friends made gifts in support of student scholarships, faculty chairs and professorships, equipment and even buildings in each of the last three years. It is not an accident that IU ranked in the top 20 universities in attracting private support 13 of the past 15 years. And that is not a list of "cupcakes." It includes Harvard, Yale and Stanford as well as Michigan, Wisconsin and UC Berkeley.\nConstancy of support begins with a satisfactory undergraduate experience and grows with the recognition that graduates put those experiences into play every day in life -- and those grads are the leaders in every community in Indiana as professionals and as citizens.\nCongratulations to the IUSF, the riders, the sponsors and the faculty and staff who came together to make the 2005 Little 500 worthy to be editorialized as the "Wonder of the Little 500 Spirit." \nCurtis Simic\nIU Foundation president
Fear doesn't solve rape problem\nAt IU we're afraid of rape. Rightfully so. It is a violent crime that invokes fear and powerlessness in its victims. We may fear the chance of it happening to us or someone we love. We may fear that it happens more often than we know, continually harming silenced victims long after an assault, but I want to acknowledge a different type of fear on campus. We fear the word "rape" and the discussion thereof.\nDuring the events of Little 500, students chalked and demonstrated to raise awareness about this heightened time of sexual assault. One chalked message that read "IU Against Rape" evoked the response that it fails to paint a good picture of IU if televised during the race. Does it not paint a worse picture if we are not openly advocating a rape-free campus?\nThe rally was covered by major media in Bloomington including the Herald Times, but where was the IDS when 75 IU students stood outside the Sample Gates this past Thursday each wearing a number 1-75 to represent the estimated number of sexual assault victims on campus this academic year? As of Wednesday, the total of sexual assaults during Little 500 week climbed to eight.\nWe mask our fear in jokes, another form of student response. Men reject the topic, feeling targeted as perpetrators when they know they are not. Talking about rape is not about blaming men. It is about finding effective ways to educate and prevent this crime from continuing on campus and about creating an environment that supports and believes victims.\nIn 90 percent of reported rapes, the victim knew the assailant. I find it unlikely these perpetrators were often intending to rape their non consenting partner from the outset, but this does not weaken the devastating effects on the victim. It only highlights the great need for widespread, comprehensive education about rape on campus. I say "we" are afraid of the word "rape" because I see this campus as a collective working together. We need to be responsible for our behavior and proactively work toward a community of respect instead of fear.\nElaine Ellis\nSenior
Agriculture secretary disregards treatment of animals\nShortly after the announcement that a downed cow in Washington was diagnosed with BSE (a.k.a. "Mad Cow" Disease), the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) wisely implemented a policy prohibiting the use of downed cattle in human food. The policy was widely endorsed by consumer protection groups, animal welfare organizations and even organizations representing the cattle industry.\nDowned animals are those who are too sick, diseased or weak to stand on their own. It has been shown that downed animals are more likely to carry diseases and be contaminated with bacterial pathogens that may be harmful to humans when consumed, and they are also more likely to suffer Mad Cow Disease. It is not possible to move downed animals humanely, and they are often dragged with chains or pushed with forklifts. Such cruel handling results in injuries ranging from bruises and abrasions to broken bones and torn ligaments.\nIncredibly, the new secretary of agriculture, Mike Johanns, is now considering allowing downed cattle back into the human food chain. He should not be allowed to do this.\nBy allowing downed and diseased animals into the food supply, Johanns is jeopardizing the safety of our food and the health of consumers, and he is showing a complete disregard for animal welfare. \nShawna Thompson\nSophomore
Common sense denied to tenant\nI was a tenant in a one-bedroom apartment in a four-unit building operated by Vencel Property Management. All four units are connected to the same water meter. Therefore, the landlord, Vencel Properties, splits the water utility bill evenly among the four tenants. This was not a problem, that is, until I received a bill for $135.81 for one month. I contacted Vencel Properties and they had no explanation for such a high billing. The normal water utility bill for each month was typically between $10 and $16. In fact, if you add the 11 of the 12 water bills I received while a tenant with Vencel, it's $158.67 total.\nNevertheless, the abnormality and simply outrageous amount of that $135.81 per unit billing didn't discourage Vencel from passing the cost to their tenants without question. More recently, a Monroe Circuit Court Judge ruled in favor of Vencel Properties, saying simply that the lease binds all tenants for any billings. Neither the court nor Vencel cared that the billing of each tenant was unjust and unsupported. Hypothetically, according to the court's ruling, if one tenant were to leave the bathtub running for an entire month and the subsequent water bill be $10,000, each tenant in the building would be responsible for a fourth of that bill. In essence, that is the total disregard of common sense that Vencel Properties and judge have justified.\nEric Lewis\nSenior
