Archive for April, 2002

SPORTS

Friday, April 19th, 2002 | Daniel Peterson

WU 2001-2002 Annual Sports Review

Friday, April 19th, 2002 | Daniel Peterson

Men’s Basketball:

Fun Fact: The Bears have captured the UAA conference crown six times in the last 15 years and own a 159-48 all-time UAA record (.768 winning percentage).

Recap of year: As Dick Vitale would say, “It was awesome, baby!” How else can you describe the best season in team history, a season that saw the Bears roll off 21 consecutive wins on their way to a 25-2 record? Although the team was tripped up in the Sweet Sixteen by DePauw University 90-87, that does not dim its accomplishments. The Bears added a sixth University Athletic Association title by going 14-0 in conference and coach Mark Edwards was named Division III coach of the year.

Outlook for next year: Excellent. All five starters return (Jariott Rook, Dustin Tylka, Matt Tabash, Joel Parrott and Chris Jefferies), so there is every reason to expect similar dominance in the UAA and another championship run.

Player of the year: Chris Jefferies
He was first team all-UAA and all-Midwest region while scoring 16.9 points a game and pulling down 8.3 rebounds.

Women’s basketball:

Fun Fact: The women’s average margin of victory this year in compiling a perfect 25-0 record was 24.1 points.

Recap of year: Okay, so they didn’t win their fifth consecutive National Championship and instead got ousted in their first game of the tournament by the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, the eventual champions. Yet that cannot diminish an undefeated regular season campaign (25-0) and a fifth consecutive UAA title.

Outlook for next year: How can you bet against them? You can’t. Despite the fact that head coach Nancy Fahey loses two seniors, Robin Lahargoue and Kristi Eller, three starters return (Hallie Hutchens, Laura Crowley, and Jennifer Rudis). There is no reason to think that a more experienced squad will not deliver another championship banner to the Hilltop.

Player of the year: Jennifer Rudis
There was no obvious pick, but Rudis gets the nod. She averaged 9.9 points a game while crashing the boards for 8.1 rebounds a contest.

Baseball:

Fun Fact: An eight-game winning streak in March and April propelled the Bears to a #22 ranking nationally.

Recap of year: Washington University baseball is back in a big way! The Bears are having their best season ever, posting a 24-8 mark though Sunday. Although the team is coming off a bad weekend in which it dropped four in a row to DePauw, things are still looking polished on the diamond.

Outlook for next year: uncertain. Losing stars like McBride, Glover, and Crume will undoubtedly hurt the Bears. On the other hand, top young hurlers Adam Cowley and Matt Knepper return. Expect somewhat of an offensive drop-off, but another winning season should be in the cards.

Player of the year: Greg Kriegler
The senior catcher is batting .351 while driving home a team high 32 RBI. Honorable mention: Reggie Crume, Mark Glover, Graham McBride and Joe Kelly.

Cross-Country

Fun Fact: Both the men’s and women’s teams place first at the Southwest Baptist University Invitational in September, the only time all year that happened.

Recap of year: New coach Jeff Stiles led the men to a third consecutive UAA title, while the women made their second consecutive NCAA meet appearance.

Outlook for next year: The men’s side loses perennial standout MacDonald and seven other seniors, while the women’s side loses only four seniors. Look for the young women’s team to impress and the men’s team to remain strong, but to fade a little without MacDonald.

Player of the year: Patrick MacDonald
MacDonald, a four-year standout, was the only runner to go to nationals, where he placed 59th.

Football:

Fun Fact: The Bears outscored the opposition, averaging 22.6 points per game while opponents scored 12.6 points per game.

Recap of year: The 8-2 record the Bears posted does not even begin to tell the story of a season that could have been much worse. With a plethora of key injuries in the first game of the season against Westminster, things were not looking good. But sophomore running back Bobby Collins, Jr., led the Bears to an inspired season of football culminating in the Bears’ second UAA title in three years. Although the Bears were snubbed by the playoff selection committee, that does not diminish the courageous effort they put in this year in the face of so many injuries.

Outlook for next year: Very good. While the Bears will lose starting quarterback Brian Tatom, almost all the key players will be around. Collins, Jr., returns with star kicker Jonathan Feig, who led the team in points scored, and linebacker Brandon Roberts, who led the team in tackles.

Player of the year: Bobby Collins, Jr.
He carried the team averaging 101.5 rushing yards a game while slamming into the endzone for seven TDs.

Softball:

Fun Fact: Freshman Victoria Ramsey leads the pitching staff with a sparkling record of 11-4.

Recap of year: The Bears have garnered an 18-14 record so far, going 4-4 in the UAA. Not bad considering this is only the third year for varsity softball at WU. However, playoff hopes are dimming: WU has to win all eleven of its remaining games to have a chance to qualify for post-season play.

Outlook for next year: There is no reason to think that the softball team will not continue to improve. They lose only one player, Emily Vambaketes, from the program, while the rest of the team returns to form a solid nucleus for years to come.

Player of the year: Elizabeth Swary
The freshman infielder is leading the way for the Bears with 6 HRs, 32 RBIs and a .438 average.

Men’s Tennis:

Fun Fact: Overall, the men’s team is 91-42 in single matches for this year.

Recap of year: The Bears are off to a 9-2 start going into the UAA championship next weekend andlook to be well on their way to a third straight post season berth. So far this year, they have racked up an 88-33 record in singles and a 30-19 record in doubles. They are pretty much a lock to participate in post-season competition for the third straight year.

Outlook for next year:
Three seniors Patrick Doyle, Chad Brand and Mike Feldman all graduate, but Brian Alvo remains along with a core nucleus of young players. Look for the Bears to make another NCAA tournament next year.

Player of the year: Brian Alvo
How can you argue with a number one ranking? He holds a 16-4 record in singles, the best on the team.

Women’s Tennis:

Fun Fact: Coach Lynn Imergoot has led WU to a winning record in each of her 25 years of coaching.

Recap of year: Up to this point, the women are ranked third in the Midwest region, dominating the competition by going an impressive 18-2. The ranking should jump since this weekend’s defeat of Kenyon College, the number one-ranked team in the region. It is not of question of whether they will get into the NCAA tournament, but if they will host a regional.

Outlook for next year: The Bears will lose only two seniors and otherwise the core of awesome youngsters like Greenberg, Kacie Cook and Jennifer Stein will be intact.

Player of the year: Laura Greenberg
So far Greenberg has gone an impressive 21-1 in singles play, which sets her apart from the other highly qualified players on the team.

Lacrosse: a playoff team in only four years

Friday, April 19th, 2002 | Daniel Peterson
Web Master

If their eye-catching (and sometimes revealing) flyers haven’t grabbed your attention, then their play on the field should. Under the new leadership of head coach Troy Hood, the Washington University men’s lacrosse team has compiled their finest season ever. The four-year-old squad garnered its first playoff berth in team history by going 4-3 in the USLIA (United States Lacrosse Intercollegiate Associates) this spring. Making the post-season is especially sweet for the club’s seniors, as they are truly the forefathers of men’s lacrosse at WU.

For a closer look at their special season, I went one-on-one with president, captain, leading scorer and all-around nice guy Bobby Dudley.

Q: As a three-year member of the team, what does it mean to finally make the conference playoffs?

A: To make the conference playoffs shows the rest of the league what we’ve known all along; we are one of the best teams in the conference and we can play with anyone in the league. It is also nice because this year’s seniors are the guys primarily responsible for making the team what it is today. Having them be able to see their goals come to fruition is worth all the hard work.

Q: Are you surprised by the progress the club has made in its short four-year history?

A: If I were an outsider, I probably would be surprised how far the team has come. However, because I’ve seen first-hand how dedicated the team’s officers, executives and players are, I’m not surprised at all by how far we’ve come. Frankly, we haven’t accomplished half of what we wanted to do in the first couple of years. But, we’re patient and we will achieve whatever we set our minds to do. As far as our level of play on the field, I’ve always known we could compete at this level and do well. Troy Hood, our new head coach, has refined the potential and the skills that we have and really made us a dangerous team on the field. True we’ve come along way, but we have barely started.

Q: What is your favorite memory from this past year?

A: Well I’d have to say my favorite memory from this past year would be our beating Mizzou. We have a, let’s say, “healthy” rivalry with Mizzou. I’ve never lost to the Tigers in my three years here and I wasn’t going to start this year. We’ve won the past three years by one goal each time, so the games are always exciting. It was back-and-forth all game long, then with 30 seconds left in the game Elliot Appel scored a goal for the win.

Q: How committed are the players on the lacrosse club team compared to athletes on actual “university-run” sports teams?

A: The fact is we really don’t consider ourselves “just a club team.” I’m sure it’s the same for the other club teams, no one really sees how much we invest in our sport. The truth is, it’s hard for me to compare our players’ dedication with varsity sports because I can’t give first-hand testimony as to their dedication. I do know that we have 25 guys who follow our motto, “Team First.” The fact that we receive a lot less recognition and support from the school than varsity sports but still compete nationally with teams like Michigan, Florida State, Auburn and University of Illinois shows how dedicated our guys really are. The fact is our players have to pay to play club lacrosse. That should also testify to their love of the game. I know that I wouldn’t trade my spot on the lacrosse team for any spot on any varsity team at this school.

WU lacrosse will begin its playoff run next weekend in Indianapolis, IN.

Contact Daniel at [email protected]

Put out to stud

Friday, April 19th, 2002 | Taylor Upchurch

Yes, this is it. The last column for Student Life. The last time I have to sit in my roommate’s broken recliner, laptop waiting expectantly, and try to remind myself why my thoughts and ramblings are supposed to be interesting to other people, while the sports editors sit nervously in the office on production night, wondering if they should call me to see if I still have a pulse.

This sports-column gig has become weird, almost to the point of irrelevance, now that I no longer have editorial duties with the paper to justify my legitimacy as a columnist. I don’t exactly have my finger on the pulse of anything, let alone anything sports-like, at this point, and insightful column-writing is the first thing that goes. I can’t decide if I feel like a grizzled veteran collecting the dues he paid as a freshman reporter, or some kind of tenured professor, or Keith Lockhart playing out the string in the last year of his last contract-you know it’s ugly and I know it’s ugly, so we both just avert our eyes and let it get over with. I prefer saying I’m being put out to stud.

If you’re expecting me to spend my last turn in this space by musing on the beauty of the circle of life, or any other sort of attempt at glamorous eloquence, then you probably shouldn’t be reading the sports page in the first place. You didn’t come here to become smarter. You came here for fun. What good are sports if they’re not fun?

Well, maybe there’s more to it than that. Some people equate Greg Maddux’s work to high art, which I suppose is appropriate. And I’ve had a little coaching in the theological approach, too. My father, who once dabbled in pontificating via editorials himself, once argued persuasively in favor of sports as a sort of religion unto itself, using it as a metaphor for. aw, hell, I’ll just run an excerpt of it here, if only to embarrass him in front of all these people he doesn’t know:

On the stage of sports, we dramatize the relationship between law and impulse (the foul line vs. the stolen base; the strike zone vs. the knockdown pitch; the sideline chain vs. the touchdown shuffle) and sanction both, recognize both as fully human, equally necessary. (I realize I am getting into idiosyncratic theology here).

In public, athletes perform the parable of the talents, and render regular public accounts of how well they are using and developing theirs.

Sports does a better job than formal theology of explaining the relationship between Spirit and Flesh-the theological issue that has gotten the most people drummed out of the church for heresy over the years. But there it is, explained fully as can be, every time a great pitcher tries and fails, or Terry Pendleton plays hurt.

Whenever Parseghian’s Notre Dame played Bryant’s Alabama, the tragic grandeur of predestination played itself out again…

It’s time sportswriters stood up and said, “There’s a reason 80% of Americans read the sports pages first every day: It’s because they are looking for God.”

(This was written in ’92, which explains the choice of Pendleton.) My first Student Life sports column, written three years ago, was entitled “In Defense of Sports,” and it clumsily hinted at similar ideas. My four years at college have been ineffective at advancing my philosophy on sports any further than that.

Can’t say the same for sports journalism, though. It’s most fun around the edges, where the innovative feature and trend pieces lurk, but much of the rest is a cesspool of shameless pandering and mundane, two-bit “analysis” that hurts more than it helps. My sophomore year was spent in the throes of sports editorship, which was probably the peak of my unbridled optimism for what I could accomplish by writing about WU sports. I attempted to tackle pickup basketball in the AC, Kurt Warner’s Jesus complex, racism on the Swamp basketball court, and even the death of a close friend, which I shamelessly snuck into the paper by pretending it had anything to do with sports. I was on the scene, doing important things, moving minds, changing the world.

But I wore down. I can admit it. WU sports journalism doesn’t often carry with it the electric charge of covering major, widely relevant events. and professional sports journalism too often carries with it the bitter pills of turning a blind eye to incompetence and corruption (at both the pro and D-I college levels) and relying on quotes from people whose performances you might want to criticize at some point. Still, there’s always reminders here and there in the papers-a slam-dunk contest here, an F.P. Santangelo-plays-nine-positions game there-that it really is all about fun and games. Which is the point, mostly.

When Keith Olbermann, an original and witty Sportscenter announcer, renounced his position and got his own news talk show on MSNBC, he explained that he’d grown sick of being in a field of no consequence. He wanted to get involved with issues that mattered. Less than a year later, at around the crest of the Clinton-Lewinsky media orgy, Olbermann came running back to the field of Kobe, Griffey and Favre, and he hasn’t moved since.

Sports aren’t the answer to everything. I shouldn’t even have to point that out in grisly times like these. But if the sporting life is just for the simple-minded, why do millions of sports fans like me keep coming back to the stadium, to Sportscenter, and to fantasy leagues every year?

Wait. Don’t answer that.

Contact Taylor at [email protected]

WUWU seeks second appearance at Nationals

Friday, April 19th, 2002 | Liz Neal
Aaron Johnson

Most Washington University students are accustomed to explaining (time and pain-staking time again) to outsiders that WU is not in fact located in the state of Washington. This spring, however, the WU women’s ultimate team (WUWU), is working hard to bring a little of that old WU spirit right back to Washington… the state, that is.
Nationals are being held in Spokane, Washington this year, and WUWU is looking to qualify for a second straight year. But first WUWU heads to the regional tournament in Little Rock, Arkansas on April 27-28-a tournament which they must not overlook.
“I think the season is going really well,” said junior co-captain Catherine Cheng. “I think we have a pretty solid group. Everyone is improving. I think we have a great chance of going to nationals.”
Coming off a very successful season last year in which they competed at nationals against the top 16 teams in the country, WUWU is enthusiastic about the way this year’s season is going.
“I’m enjoying it as always,” said senior Kristen Wittle. “I feel like the team is doing pretty well this year. We’re a fairly new team. This is our third year. We have a few people who’ve been around for a few years and have the skills, and we have some new people who have the spirit and the drive.”
The team will need that combination of experience and spirit as they finish out their year. They suffered a disappointing loss at the WU-hosted Huck Finn tournament in March when they fell in the semi-finals. However, WUWU will not let such losses dampen their spirits as they work towards regionals.
“We’re working on our fundamentals,” said Cheng. “Especially playing in the wind-it is our biggest weakness.”
“Individual players learned the extent of their own skills,” said junior co-captain Suzanne Wikle. “And we really learned how to work together as a team, especially this past semester.”
The team has to be prepared as it faces competition from all over the states of Arkansas, Texas and Missouri. In Ultimate, there are no divisions like other varsity sports, and WUWU faces teams from schools of all sizes. They expect their toughest competition in Little Rock to come from the University of Texas. However, the team has many weapons in its arsenal that it can use against UT.
“We have really good defense,” said Wikle. “We don’t have one outstanding player, but everyone contributes a lot.”
This team attitude spills over into all that WUWU does. The women claim the team experience is one of the best parts of playing ultimate. The team is close and spends time together on and off the field.
“It’s a really varied group,” said Cheng. “It’s a good variety. We’re a lot closer [than last year], and we’ve been having more fun at tournaments.”
WUWU expects things only to get better in the future as players become more and more experienced with the game. The team has only been in existence for three years, but they continue to grow, recruiting any woman that wants to play, from freshmen to grad students.
“We’re losing a couple of key players, but we have a couple of new players who look pretty good,” said Cheng of the team’s outlook for next year. “It looks pretty good; we still have a core group of people.”
The team encourages anyone interested to try out for the squad next year. Experience is not required, especially since ultimate is such a young sport. Wikle warns those interested not to be concerned if they have never played before.
“I think a lot of girls don’t come out because they don’t know how to play,” said Wikle. “Nobody does. We teach them. No one should be intimidated by not knowing how to play.”
“It’s really easy to learn and a lot of fun,” said Cheng. “It’s a good way to meet people. You can throw anywhere or anytime.”
“The team is just fun,” said Wittle. “The sport is great; the girls are great.”
Despite the more light-hearted attitude, WUWU is still a team of fierce competitors, and, if all goes as planned, the season will culminate in an invasion of Washington state by the ladies of WUWU.
“We’re at the point where things are starting to come together, and I just can’t wait for the energy that comes with regionals,” said Wittle. “It’s a different level. I’m excited to see the team come together. I can’t wait to see what happens and how we pull together as a team.”
Contact Liz at [email protected]

Track stars succeed

Friday, April 19th, 2002 | Nick Bhatnagar

As the school year comes to a close, the Washington University track team continues to run hard as it prepares for the NCAA Division III championship meet.

One of the stepping stones to this event is the Southern Illinois-Edwardsville Cougar Classic, which was held last Saturday. Although everyone has been running well, two athletes in particular have performed exceptionally: sophomore pole-vaulter Sarah Springer and sophomore middle distance runner Mindy Kuhl.

In the Cougar Classic, Kuhl ran a 4:39.02 in the 1500-meter run, giving her an NCAA qualifying time. Her time was the second-fastest time in the NCAA this year, and Kuhl was named one of the UAA athletes of the week.

“Going into the meet, I knew it was going to be a good day. The weather conditions were perfect and I knew I was going to run well. The competition at the meet was good and that helped me perform at a higher level,” said Kuhl

“I had a bad start at the beginning, I was being boxed out by other runners, but 200 meters into the race I saw an opening, made my move and had the lead the rest of the way.”

Springer, who was just as impressive, pole vaulted 11 feet, beating her personal best by 2 inches. She placed first at the Cougar Classic and is now ranked 11th in the nation at the Division III level. Most notably, Springer has improved by almost a foot on her vaults from a year ago.

“Our coaching staff has gotten a lot better this year,” said Springer. “Coach [Steve] Rubin’s lifting program made me stronger and he taught me to jump.”

This Friday and Saturday, the UAA championship is being held at Emory University. The meet has historically proved to be successful for WU track.

“From past experience and indoor track, our team is very strong, and we always come out ahead. The girls usually dominate the meet.” said Kuhl.

Individually, players are taking different approaches in preparing for the meet. Kuhl plans on facing tough competition in the 1500m and 800m.

“Because I’m running two days in a row. I don’t want to get spent early in the meet,” said Kuhl. “I will run hard, but not all out until I make it to the final round. I also have the 800 to run for so I have to save energy for that.”

Springer, on the other hand, is in a league of her own. Her vaults normally take out all competitors by at least two feet.

“It’s a mental game for me,” said Springer. “I have to stay mentally focused and not put a cap on what I can do.”

No matter what the approach, the team expects much success to come from the UAA invitational.

Contact Nick at [email protected]

WU crew team shows true devotion

Friday, April 19th, 2002 | Matt Goldberg
Courtesy of WU crew team

What are you doing at five in the morning Monday through Saturday? Sleeping? Studying? Just getting to bed? Well, for 22 dedicated members of the Washington University Crew Club-12 men, seven women, and three coxswains-5:00 a.m. means another early-morning van ride to Creve Coeur Lake for practice.

WU crew consists of four separate squads: men’s varsity (9 members), women’s varsity (5 members), novice men (5 members) and novice women (3 members). Each squad understandably relishes its early morning practice time.

“At 4:50 I want to break my alarm,” says sophomore Ben Bridie, one of the nine members of the men’s varsity crew team.

The early mornings “are a fate that I would not wish upon my worst enemy, but once you are awake, it is not so bad,” says freshman Brandon Heller.

In spite of the fact that “the lack of sleep builds up,” says freshman Matt White, “joining Crew is the most fun thing I’ve done in college.”

Apparently, WU Crew members have a unique definition of the word “fun.” A normal day goes something like this: practice from 5:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m., then a quick doughnut break on the way back (sometimes), and finally another day of grueling WU classes. Freshman Nick Paden says that practice consists of “hopping in the bow seat and proceeding to freeze, get soaked, and be beaten for being so damned short.”

Freshman Matt White says, “I need a shower after practice and sometimes I have to run to English composition because I have too many tardies. [Then] I go through classes and try not to fall asleep.”

The rowers are motivated to keep up this strenuous program by the promise of the regattas. They live to defeat unassuming Division I rivals, and in recent weeks at meets in Oklahoma and at Creve Coeur Lake they have done just that. At the Creighton meet, the men’s varsity team grabbed first place by defeating St. Thomas University. This past weekend at home it defeated Murray State.

As the school year winds down, WU crew “kicks it up a notch,” racing in the midst of finals and then traveling to Philadelphia for the national championships in mid-May.

“Regattas consist of trying to relax while waiting for your event to be called. Everything else is pure adrenaline rush,” says Bridie.

Regattas afford WU athletes the opportunity to experience “cramped van rides and sleeping on other school’s gym floors,” says freshman Nick Paden. But at the end of the day, “There is nothing like beating up on a Division I school.”

Contact Matt at [email protected]

OPINION

Friday, April 19th, 2002 | Anthony Ruebsam

So what took so long?

Friday, April 19th, 2002 | Anthony Ruebsam

WU’s decision to suspend Beta Theta Pi from all campus operations and bar them from using their house on Fraternity Row marks the end of a sordid chapter in campus Greek life. The Betas were commonly associated with disruptive and lewd behavior. They feuded with other fraternities, sexually harassed students at parties, taunted the “Take Back the Night” marchers on the Row two years ago. The list goes on, and the suspension comes as a welcome relief to the student body. In finally deciding to suspend the Betas, WU showed it can punish flagrant, sexist behavior and protect the safety of students. However the timing of the decision is questionable.

Until last fall, when WU put the chapter on probation, Beta had always received mere “slap on the wrist” punishments and warnings for their egregious behavior. Why did the university take so long to kick this chapter out? Certainly the Beta’s behavior during the 1992-1993 school year was no worse than in previous years.

A simple, more timely response from WU would have been more appropriate, and more convincing.

In addition, WU’s creation of a probation period for Beta was both unnecessary and artificial. To begin with, Beta did not deserve a second chance. And then when they got that chance, it was no chance at all.

The terms of probation required that Beta become the shining star of all fraternities, that their members become flawless role models. Beta could never have done this in one year. No fraternity could have.

Certainly the Beta case is historic. According to the Department of Student Affairs, this is the first time WU has ever thrown a greek organization off campus for disciplinary reasons.

And make no mistake: The eviction, while unusual, was necessary and right. But WU’s handling of the case over the past years has been inconsistent. If the decision to suspend was going to be made at all, it should have been made much earlier. If it had been, WU would have demonstrated a stronger commitment to ending this kind of behavior on the Hilltop.

Letters

Friday, April 19th, 2002 | Anthony Ruebsam

Freedom of expression does not equal freedom to vandalize
To the editor:
Anger. Shock. Disbelief. Those were three of the many feelings I felt as I watched a fellow student write the word “fascism” across an Israeli flag hanging in Bowles Plaza during a celebration for Israel’s 54th birthday.
At a school where dialogue, not vandalism, is often used to express one’s political views, it never occurred to me that a student might turn to destroying a national symbol of Israel in order to express his opinion. As I watched this particular student deface the Israeli flag, I did not fully understand what he was doing or why he was doing it. I understand that he was trying to make a point and express his beliefs, but personally I do not see how vandalism is an effective way of doing so. This student merely wrote the word and walked out of Bowles Plaza without any explanation to defend his belief.
So as I watched this student deface the Israeli flag, I went through a number of emotions. Anger, because defacing an important national symbol, whether it is for America or for another country, is disrespectful. Shock, because I was witnessing a possible hate-crime taking place. Finally, I felt disbelief given the recent rally in Washington D.C. in which Israel was depicted as far as possible from being fascist. During the rally it was emphasized repeatedly that the United States of America stands in solidarity with Israel, the only democratic country in the Middle East. Another reason I was in disbelief was because this student chose a very cowardly way of expressing his feelings, rather than having an open discussion with someone where different views could be shared. I feel that if this student truly wants to get his point across it would have been better expressed in a dialogue with someone who supports Israel’s government.
The right to free speech, the most important freedom given to us in this country, is guaranteed only until it infringes upon the basic rights of other. I am not saying that this student should not have expressed his beliefs; rather, his expression should not have infringed on someone else’s property rights. As students on this campus we should feel free to express our opinions in an appropriate and respectful manner, whether they be verbally or through the display of a symbol, without the worry of being ostracized or the fear of the symbol getting defaced.

Erin Pickar
Arts and Sciences
Class of 2004

Drugs not allowed in campus housing
To the editor:
A recent article by Courtney Miller about the Residential Life policy on searching for drugs in a suite owned by ResLife poses an interesting question: do I care that this is how ResLife handled the situation? In a word, no.
All of the complaints of discrimination and everything else aside, there is a fundamental point that is being missed. Drugs are not allowed in Residential Life owned housing, plain and simple. Regardless of policy and how much it is or is not enforced, you need to know that you are taking a chance when you break the rules. ResLife has better things to do than be on 24 hour “weed-watch,” so the people who get busted are going to get it bad.
If you don’t think that this is real-world enough for you, look at the policy for the MetroLink. Tickets cost only $1.25, and plenty of times people are tempted to ride for free since the fare-checkers aren’t always around. But if you are caught without a ticket, you will have to pay a $500 fine. Now since some days the MetroLink may give out 10 fines, and others 0, it makes the policy inconsistent.
Granted drugs and MetroLink tickets are not on the same level, but the whole point of this article is that the inconsistency does not matter. You KNOW that you are doing something wrong, but you are taking a chance doing it anyway. This means you have no one to blame but yourself.
I’m not against people smoking pot, just people complaining about the consequences afterwards.

Aneel Damle
Co-Coordinator WuHealth Network
Arts and Sciences
Class of 2004

Recycling a tradition at WILD
To the editor:
As some one who has helped establish the recycling program as a student and now as the campus Recycling Coordinator, I would like to understand further what the staff meant by its editorial on April 5th.
For the record, there have recycling bins in place for the past four WILDs with the help of CEQ and Facilities, and I have personally witnessed each one being more successful than the one before, in terms of reduced contamination and the amount left on the ground. I agree that the pick up of what is left on the ground including trash should not be left to Spann and a few caring souls, but I am curious to know what else you are asking for when you say “this policy should appropriately be handed down from up on high.” I would sincerely appreciate any thoughts about how we can better the system as well as recognition to a few folks who have worked hard to respond to students’ needs.

Nate Dewart
Recycling Coordinator