2008 Woodie Awards
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
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DPS is not students' enemy
To the Editor:
Your Dec. 2 editorial, "Housing Problems Run Deep," made several allegations that simply are not true and are not based on the facts.
The editorial alleges that the Department of Public Safety's "rumored volatile behavior, check-in policies and all-freshmen dormitories have turned students to living off campus." Although the editorial clearly admits that there are no hard-and-fast cases of DPS abusing its power, it nevertheless claims that "it is well known that DPS officers have acted aggressively toward students in the past." The editorial also claims that the University's alcohol policies restrict students' freedom.
As the Director of Public Safety, I would like to state without any reservations that the editorial is based solely on a biased point of view and not the facts. It is unfair to make these assumptions and attack the credibility of the women and men of this office, whose sole purpose and hard work is to make our campus a safe environment for our students, faculty and staff to live, work and pursue an education.
Let's review the facts. First of all, residence life staff members normally deal with loud parties and underage drinking in the residence halls. They call on DPS only to assist them with their investigation when a party becomes unruly.
Students who are in violation only will be referred to the judicial process to deal with any violations of the Student Handbook 99 percent of the time. On very rare occasions, when a student is completely out of control, he or she will be restrained. Again, this is very rare and is done only to prevent injury to the student, residence life staff, other students and DPS officers. As a result, no one has ever been injured during this process.
The sole purpose of dealing with an out-of-control student in this manner is to protect the student and those at the party. In these instances, alcohol is to blame for the student's out-of-control behavior and aggressive state of mind. When the student later regains composure, he or she is released and referred to the judicial process. This certainly is not an "abuse of power."
An article in the Nov. 13 edition of the student newspaper at the University of Missouri-Columbia compared several major universities in the state as well as Kansas. The "Clery Act" mandates the release of these statistics, which reflect the arrests and referrals for alcohol-related violations over the last three years.
Your readers should know that here at Saint Louis University no one has been arrested in the last three years for any alcohol-related offenses. Why? Because, as a Catholic, Jesuit institution, the health and well-being of our students is our top priority. We believe it is in the best interest of our students for these cases to be handled internally. If, for example, a student appears to have a drinking problem, he or she will be referred to counseling.
In all of the cases involving arrests at these other institutions, a student would be arrested, have to make bond, get an attorney, go to court and, if convicted, deal with a fine, confinement or both. Most importantly, the student would have a misdemeanor conviction on his or her record. Any future employer could have access to this information when performing a pre-application arrest check.
Compared to the reality of being arrested, do SLU's procedures seem aggressive, as the editorial would have you believe? I think not.
SLU's process is less intrusive and doesn't stay with a student for the rest of his or her life. Here at SLU, a student would have to be totally out of control for DPS to turn him or her over to the police.
Simply put, this editorial is wrong and has no basis in the facts. Your readers should note that SLU's Department of Public Safety has 100 women and men who are dedicated to their safety. The last thing we want is an adversarial relationship with students because of the actions of a few who chose to violate University policies and don't take responsibility for their actions.
DPS provides students who live on campus and those who don't with many services, including more than 23,000 escorts annually on our campus. Off-campus housing normally does not provide escorts and generally has only one security guard, if any, working to secure their premises.
Your readers also should realize that students who live off campus will be arrested if they are unruly and in violation of the law when local police are called to complaints about loud parties, noise disturbances and underage drinking. That doesn't happen here at SLU.
The University News should not use DPS or any undocumented reasons to form an opinion about students moving off campus. Hopefully, your readers will understand that DPS is a friend and resource for any problem that they might have here while attending Saint Louis University.
Jack A. Titone
Director of Public Safety
Saint Louis University
The Greek system and the Mission
To the Editor:
To Fr. Biondi, Kathy Humphrey, Linda Wardhammer, the leaders and all members of fraternities and sororities: Do you honestly believe our Greek members are embodying the ideals of a Catholic, Jesuit University, which promote equality, peace and justice? Included in this is the work to end sexism in our community and in the world. Are the members of the Greek system really being men and women for others?
Our answer to these questions is: Maybe on an individual basis, but as a whole, no. The examples we could provide are many, but to illustrate our point, we present a few.
On a Marvelous Monday, a Fraternity member sitting in the quad yelled to a group of high school students and parents, "Send us your daughters!", a statement obviously treating women as objects simply for sexual desire and reflecting a dire lack of respect for women.
Other examples only touch the surface of what goes on in these groups, but we feel as if these serve our point well enough. Events are thrown that are entitled, among others, "Golf Pros, Tennis Hos," "Catholic School Girl," "CEOs and Intern Hoes" and "Hillbillies and Whores."
The T-shirts are no better with phrases like "Donkey Punch," or "We get it up and keep it up." We are not trying to attack the individual fraternities and sororities that have used these phrases. They were, however, the first to come to mind and exemplify our point that the Greeks are promoting a culture of sexism.
The saddest part is that some people gladly participate in these events and wear these shirts. Every day, we are barraged with a message that women are sexual objects for men's pleasure, and we, the authors, call for an end to these actions. Fr. Biondi's goal of being the best Jesuit University in the nation is not being aided by groups that actively denigrate the women of this campus.
What is the purpose of fraternities and sororities? Is it to improve the surrounding community or to hurt it? If it is the former, then I beg the campus to stop turning a blind eye to the actions that hurt the community.
We the authors think the philanthropy is a great part of our Greek system, and do not want to see the groups taken off campus. We simply ask that before the next event is thrown or shirt is made, they ask themselves, "Does this promote or relegate the work done to eliminate sexism?"
Men and women of the Greek system, we do not blame you, but we blame a society that treats women as sexual objects. However, we do call you to a higher standard, a Christian standard, and beg you to rise above society's expectations. Neither our men nor our women are truly free until they free themselves from the bondage of sexism and rise to a higher standard where we are all brothers and sisters in Christ, made in the image and likeness of God and called to be both disciples and prophets.
James Meinert
Julie O'Heir
Timothy Cosentino
Shahnawaz A. Qalbani
Meal plan not fair to students
To the Editor:
When I learned that the SGA passed the bill to force students to buy a $200 meal plan, I was disappointed. This is an organization that is supposed to represent the students, so why would they ever want to burden students with more costs? They are students too. Maybe it does not affect some of them personally, but why would they want to force their friends and peers to pay another $200?
From what I heard of this bill, it was presented as a way to lower costs for the students who pay $17 per meal. Paying that much is not fair. I wish I could have eaten out at a nice restaurant every day instead, when I had that plan. I'm asking anyone who knows: Is the cost of meal plans for these students going to be lowered?
The price for their meal plans should be lowered, but not at the expense of other students. I have been trying to lower my costs ever since I came here. I stopped getting a meal plan and moved off campus. No one should have to pay for a service that they don't want. Would you like to pay the overhead for a restaurant you don't want to eat at? How would you feel if you were forced to?
There is more wrong with this plan. Did anyone else notice how quickly and quietly this was passed? It was right before finals week too.
Last spring there was more debate, and the plan did not pass. Perhaps that is why it was quietly rushed in. To those who passed this: Please rethink this and take more students' opinions into account.
To the students, apartment residents and commuters especially: Speak up.
Melissa Nappi
Senior, Parks College