‘Savvy Student Wednesdays’ create waste
The bagel place in the Student Union Memorial Center forces students to get the drink on Wednesday in order to get the subsidized $3 meal. The checker said that the employees were recently told to ensure that students grab all three components to the meal, otherwise they must charge full price. I don’t drink soda, so I only grabbed chips and the bagel sandwich. The checker would not give me the $3 meal unless I went and grabbed a cup and put some liquid in it … I had to throw out the cup and waste it because of their new policy. This anti-environmental policy should be highlighted.
— Lee Streitz, Landscape architecture graduate student
Fewer guns allows for more civilized campus
On the issue of guns in general, and specifically on our campus, may I offer these personal thoughts for the consideration of Wildcat readers?
1. I support guns for hunting (though I do have a problem with entertainment killing of animals).
2. I support a person’s right to carry a gun in extreme circumstances; for example, if they have a business or home that has been robbed, or if they are being specifically threatened.
3. I support a person’s right to target practice with guns in an authorized area.
4. However, I don’t support the right of people to carry guns as a general practice. Why? While it may be true that a person has a right to carry a gun as they walk around campus, work at their place of employment or visit a store, I also have a right that they not carry a gun. Therein is the clash of rights.
5. My reason is this: I don’t trust the average person to carry a loaded gun. I don’t know what they are like when they are angry and have a gun, when they are stressed and have a gun, when they are at a party and have a gun, or when they are in a fast-moving panic situation and have a gun. In my view, their gun possession is a threat.
6. Some people argue that it would be beneficial to have more people armed in the event that a crime or mass shooting takes place. But consider this: No matter how much target practice a person does, being able to respond correctly in an actual chaotic and volatile situation is a whole different level. It demands higher, more finely tuned, and quicker decision making capacities. Soldiers and police undertake persistent training for these situations. The average person is only an amateur.
In summary, it is my personal view that having fewer and less powerful guns, rather than additional and more powerful guns, provides a more civilized pathway for our campus and society.
— Ron Rude, UA Lutheran campus pastor-ELCA
