Get your story straight on ASUA!

The front page of the Daily Wildcat should be a place for the highest journalistic standards. Non-investigative reports that simply regurgitate the statements of Tommy Bruce without question are not journalism; they are press releases. On yesterday’s front page, the Daily Wildcat tells us that everything’s “”A-OK”” with ASUA (“”ASUA A-OK,”” yesterday). “”Bruce said yesterday that the Daily Wildcat’s estimate hinged on figures misrepresented in the contract and failed to take into account a $400,000 loan.”” Someone needs to tell Tommy Bruce that loans are debts. A liability is a liability, whether it’s an actual cash loss or a debt to be paid later. My credit cards allow me to pay for things, but I’m not silly enough to claim I made a profit going to a concert because I took out a cash advance and had some money left over after I bought the tickets. But, the Daily Wildcat continues, the loan has been fully paid off. That doesn’t make any difference. If I get paid the day after I buy my concert tickets and then pay off my cash advance, I’ve still spent that money. Claiming that debt doesn’t exist because a loan was not included in the accounting is just ridiculous. Someone at the Daily Wildcat needed to look into this further to figure out what the real story is. You’ve either succeeded in making ASUA look bad by misrepresenting the facts, or you’ve failed to investigate the story properly and allowed unfounded propaganda to stand in for facts. Either way, you have done a disservice to your readership, ASUA and the entire university.

Scott Forster

freshman majoring in linguistics and pre-journalism

Not just an ordinary bubble sheet

As another year is coming to a close, the final days are filled with travel plans, packing, studying and unfortunately final exams (Sorry! I’ll pretend I didn’t say those two words). With all these things jammed into our schedule, we, as students, often pay little attention to the boring, frequent student evaluations on our classes. To us, it is just one step closer to three months of freedom and we race to fill in the bubble sheet and sneak out of the class without giving any feedback for the professor. I mean, really, it’s not like they even read them right? And they might know it is me writing these comments, so I don’t want to write anything negative to affect my grade. But this is not the case.

Recently, I came across research on an issue regarding college class size and if the relative size affects a student’s quality of education. I found that the effectiveness of the class, small or large lectures, depends on the professor’s teaching structure and techniques. Therefore, student evaluations are a lot more important than many people think and little did we know students hold a great deal of power when it comes to how classes are structured. I even have the occasional class where it seems almost impossible to keep my eyes open or my train of thought goes completely off topic, and instead I think about my plans for the weekend, what I am going to wear tomorrow, the homework I have to do (Yawn!), etc.

So, as your teachers pass out the student evaluations, really take some time and think about what might help make this class really beneficial. Not only will you help the students in the years following you, but the students ahead will benefit you as well. Also, teachers and professors really value feedback and opinions from their students. Does the teacher need to make the students participate and be more active? Would videos or demonstrations make the material more understandable? Does the professor need to provide more useful assignments or pause to make sure the class understands the material? Not only should you include what can be improved in the class, but also what the professor does well. Thus, when student evaluations roll around in the next week or so, really put some thought in it and voice your opinions.

Courtney Pace

biology freshman

Call for China fairness overdue

I applaud and appreciate Matt Rolland’s Diss-Course article (“”China can’t take all the blame,”” yesterday) in the Daily Wildcat. Such a call for balanced, unbiased and undistorted reports on issues with which China is viewed as having an important role is long overdue. China certainly is not heaven, but it is far from being hell. The same is true everywhere in the world. Sure, we all enjoy the freedom of speech, free press included, but how many of us actually second guess the truthfulness of media reports?

When the recent Tibet unrest were reported, only the Chinese military trucks were shown, but the stone-throwing mobs were left out of scene. When the pro-Tibet protestors were carried away by Nepalese police, the doctored photos showed only the crying protestors; the law enforcement wearing “”Nepal Police”” uniforms were cropped away. When challenged, these responsible media excused themselves by citing technical errors. One would be either na’ve or completely blinded to believe such chicanery.

Free press means not just you are free to present things to one’s like, but most importantly, present them in such a manner that is fair, unbiased, impartial and respectful. Let’s all have an open mind. Go visit China and experience for yourself. I am confident that you will like China much more than you dislike it.

Zhiping Zheng

associate professor of chemistry

We’ve already got a concealed-carry law!

In response to Knut Norstog’s letter to the editor (“”Guns on campus ‘ridiculous!'”” yesterday): A concealed-carry law was already passed. The only thing that is ridiculous is that the university, a public institution, believes that it is somehow a special place where individuals shouldn’t have the ability to effectively defend themselves. Moreover, this is only talking about the concealed carry of firearms; the bearing of arms has been in American law since the beginning.

Daniel Greenberg

political science senior