Letters to the Editor

Flyers do not agree with Scott

To the Daily:

I have recently been contacted by members of the University community inquiring about the origin of the "Do You Agree With Scott?" fliers now everywhere on campus. It seems many individuals have assumed that my campaign for the University Board of Regents is responsible. The Trudeau for Regent campaign and the Student Greens have nothing to do with these fliers, though we are curious to see who is behind this publicity stunt. I would also like to note that the Trudeau for Regent Committee has assets of zero dollars. We cannot afford to print ten fliers, let alone the thousands printed in this gross misuse of resources for the purpose of publicity.

Scott Trudeau

Green party candidate for regent

Time to take suicide prevention seriously

To the Daily:

I would like to thank the Daily editorial board for taking a proactive step in addressing the serious issue of suicide ("A word on suicide: Problem needs more attention from all" 10/27/00). By publicly recognizing this neglected public health concern, the media holds the power to help break the silence and stigma surrounding issues of mental health and illness.

According to the U.S. Surgeon General, more Americans die of suicide each year than from homicide. Yet how many of us realize that for every two homicides that occur across the nation, three suicides are committed? While homicide rates capture national attention, we remain unaware or unwilling to address the significant impact of suicide and other mental health issues.

The leading cause of suicide is untreated depression. College students face increased risk because they are at a stage of life when they may encounter their first bout with depression, stressful lifestyle changes and a separation from previous forms of support. Unfortunately, more than half of individuals dealing with clinical depression do not seek help for this very treatable condition.

It is time to educate each other and ourselves on mental health issues so that we can decrease unnecessary suffering. Let us follow the leads of Dr. David Satcher and Tipper Gore who issued The Surgeon General's Call to Action to Prevent Suicide in July of 1999. Please do not wait until you lose someone you love to care about suicide prevention.

Natasha Verhage

School of public health

Parking deters students from class

To the Daily:

Right now, I should be in class. In fact, I was just a mere 100 yards away from my classroom, in the EECS Building on North Campus. However, due to the lack of parking spaces up there, I was unable to park my car, even after driving around to every single visitor lot, from Huron Parkway to the FXB.

Why is it that students and visitors have to fight tooth and nail over this huge shortage of parking spaces, when, on the other side of the lot, there lie 50 blue spaces open, mocking us? Sure, I could park there and probably dodge the student-enforced parking police, but I'd rather not risk the fine. So, many students like me are forced to have their education cut short because there's no place to park. How are we supposed to go to class, if there's no place for us to park? My options are: To walk 15 minutes to a bus stop; wait ten minutes for the first bus, which will be so full that nobody can get on it; wait another five minutes for the second bus, then have a ten minute ride to North Campus. Total transit time of 40 minutes to get to a place less than two miles away. Or I could drive my car up there - a trip of five minutes - and then try and find a parking spot for 25 minutes (which happened today, might I add), and then, already hopelessly late for class, drive back to my house.

Ideally, nobody would have to deal with either of these situations. We, the upperclassmen students of Central Campus, would be able to drive our cars to North Campus, find a convenient parking spot, feed the meter and then get on our merry way to the classes we pay $10,000 a year for. But no, we're stuck circling the lot like vultures, hoping for another student to leave.

My question is this: Since Parking Services is a department run by the University, why is it that assisting the students (the little people who are here to learn and who, essentially, pay the salaries of all of the staff, researchers, parking attendants and everyone else at the University) comes in the form of making them skip class because there's no parking? I just don't understand how this is Parking "Service."

Jonathan Janego

LSA junior

Votes-per-campaign-dollar performance

To the Daily:

I think we should propose a votes-per-campaign-dollar performance measure for presidential candidates to evaluate the efficiency of their campaign, and their real popularity. I am proposing that instead of just simply counting the votes for each candidate, we should calculate the number of dollars per vote each candidate has spent campaigning. So what this measure indicates is the number of votes per candidate given equal funding - hence equal exposure to the public.

I believe if you have a lot of issues and concerns that attract the public you don't need to spend a lot, just enough to reach them. If you don't have such attractive issues, you have to buy a lot of airtime to remind people again and again that you are running for the office and how you are different from your opponents. Hence I think the votes-per-dollar performance measure I am proposing makes a lot of sense as a factor in determining success or failure for the candidates.

I know this might sound really nerdy, but believe me this type of approach is a very common way to evaluate the success of a lot of economic and social programs. So why not measure the success of each candidate in that way too? I mean, at least you can use that as a test to measure the efficiency of all the candidates.

Let's even forget about the content and the issues each candidate brings up for a second and only think in these nerdy engineering terms. If we do, Green Party presidential candidates Ralph Nader and Wynona Laduke will prevail as the most stunning fact of this presidential election. Then you will find yourself thinking, "maybe it is the candidates of the two major parties who are stealing other candidates' votes through a corrupted money-driven political structure."

Tara Javidi

Rackham

MSA candidate loses vote by 'resume building'

To the Daily:

I have to say that I was thoroughly outraged at what Scott Zitrick, Blue Party candidate for Michigan Student Assembly (MSA), had to say in the Oct. 31 issue of the Daily. Saying that he wants to become an MSA rep because, "I just want the position . . . it is a great resume builder," and because "it gives me a little power to make important decisions" is not the right attitude candidates should have. Zitrick and the Blue Party ought to be ashamed.

MSA is an organization committed (ideally) to representing the students of this fine institution. However, when groups like the Blue Party run candidates with primarily selfish motives, it is not representing the best interests of students. One has to wonder if the entire Blue Party slate is filled with people like Zitrick; and one therefore has to consider the costs of electing people such as this. Do we really want a student government full of "resume builders?"

Now, I am not an avid follower of campus politics and I was not even going to vote this fall in MSA elections, but now I have an incentive. I'm not sure who I'm going to vote for yet, but I can assure you that I am not going to waste a single vote of mine on Scott Zitrick or the Blue Party.

Andrew Moore

Engineering junior