The issue is the fact that the paint on that rock has never been removed or cleaned up around the base of the rock, which leaves a nasty reminder of how long this tradition has gone on.
If you look at the rock closely, the first thing you will see is the six-inch-high paint mound around the base of the rock, from years of drippings on the ground. You will see ugly little paint-sicles hanging off the protruding edges, again from all the years of paint. This, of course, ignores the lovely graffiti you see all over the sidewalk around the rock, which adds a nice touch.
Every time I pass that thing on the way to class, I want to get a high-power sprayer and power clean that sucker down to the bare stone.
I am not against painting the rock - it's a fine tradition here on the campus. I just think the University should work with the city to clean it off once in a while, so that the rock and the park around it at least looks a little kept up.
Edward Chusid
LSA junior
Gnatt, an East Coaster, wrote a piece blasting all Midwesterners, especially those of Michigan, since they cannot fit into the cultured style of the East Coast. In our opinion, it is about goddamned time that those from Michigan start defending themselves against this attitude. Rothman said that "an apology should be issued to all out-of-state students." As an out-of-stater, we would like to completely disagree with this; we do not feel that we were targeted in the article, and so do not need or even want an apology. In fact, we would like to thank Miller for his piece.
In Walsh's letter, he called the New York students a "sizeable campus minority." I have yet to see an application or survey that gives New Yorkers minority status. If that is the case, then the University makes them a largely over-represented minority. If you were a real minority, you would know prejudice.
Yes, Miller's piece did work on stereotypes. And yes, we have known New Yorkers who do not fit this mold, but we have known enough who do. Those are the ones who stand out, and whom everyone has seen.
The day Miller's piece came out, one friend of ours from New York was wearing a Hilfiger shirt, and a friend had a New Yorker come to her to complain about bagels and pizzas. We think that Walsh and Rothman are taking this way too seriously. They are acting (and saying) that being from New York alone is enough to give them minority status and they are experiencing prejudice.
Rothman said that she "thought this campus was past discrimination and prejudice." We guess she just has not noticed the prejudice directed at those who really are minorities.
David Crandall
LSA senior
Lawson Sutherland
Engineering junior
I do not see how anybody can reason that people who have supported the program for years should have their tickets taken away. There is not a school anywhere that would have done that. As when I started out at the University in 1989, the students are still the most fickle fans anywhere. It was good to split the package so everybody could go to some games this season. Then next year, they will be able to go to all of them.
I do not know how many games I have been embarrassed by the obvious large number of missing students. Maybe now students who have tickets will appreciate them and not take them for granted. Maybe they will not only attend the games, but support the team by cheering as well.
University fans are the worst fans anywhere. New students will learn that this campus lacks spirit. A University coach should not have to beg for fans to cheer. But it happens at the University. The only students on this campus worthy of being called fans are those who pack Yost Ice Arena for a hockey game. That is the way it should be at all University games.
At a school that strives to be the best in everything, the fans, student and non-student, sure have a long way to go. Instead of whining, do your part to create a new spirit around campus worthy of University tradition. Help create a true home-field advantage for our teams. They deserve that much!
Tim Dryer
University alumnus
Eventually, reality will set in and these students will resign themselves to yet another semester of waiting to get that one important class - the prerequisite to everything they and 5,000 other students want to take for the rest of their college career. For most students, this lasts freshman and maybe part of sophomore year. For a few, like me, this is the story of their whole education at the University.
I come from a middle-class family that would have been described as reasonably well-off while I was growing up. We did not have a summer house or a yacht, but we could afford two cars and the occasional camping trip. We definitely could afford to send three children to college, or so the government told us. However, the government does not tell you what to do when your parents are divorced after 20 years of marriage and you are on your own at 18. Looking back, I am amazed that I managed to attend college at all, especially with the astronomic rise of tuition over the pat few years.
To make a long story short, I have been able to register for class on time exactly once - my first semester freshman year. I have watched my classmates slip into courses with increasing ease as their credit hours accumulated, while I was still in Mason Hall two days before classes started trying to find something, anything open I could CRISP into.
Now, with more than 100 miscellaneous credits to my name, I am again being turned away from the only class I really need in favor of first- or second-year students who have, as always, still been able to register before I managed to beg, borrow or steal enough money to pay back tuition.
I do not blame my parents for this; I do not blame the University; I just do not understand why, when I sign my tax return at the beginning of each year, I am still not eligible for financial aid until I reach the age of 24.
I am one of the faceless many who fall through the monetary loophole: not rich enough to pay, not poor enough to go for free. I know I am not the only one. Is it not time the University addressed this issue, or at least acknowledged that we exist?
Ian Willia
LSA senior
09-10-97
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