Letters

to the

Editor

Canning Org. Studies was right choice; fluff majors abound

To the Daily:

I applaud Shirley Neuman's decision to eliminate the Organization Studies program from the list of possible concentrations approved by the College of LSA. This is a University, not a day-care center where professionals send their pre-adulthood children off to play. A University is a place where you learn about important subjects such as math, history, English, science and art. It is not a place where you come to have a good time, and possibly take some classes that might, in a conglomerated form, count towards some type of concentration in the end.

First of all, most people don't even know what is involved in the Organizational Studies program. I would assume that it is the study of organizations, e.g. a business (not the study of how to file your bank statements effectively every month). If you want to study business, go to the business school. Perhaps join the College of Engineering and study IOE. You could even get an economics degree and perhaps take some peripheral business/IOE classes.

I believe that every time the University grants somebody a "fluff" degree, it cheapens the degrees we all have.

"Fluff" degrees are essentially useless, considering the fact that when you tell a person you are studying one of these areas, they nod "yes" and murmur "uh huh, that's good" but they really have no idea what you're talking about and secretly feel sorry for your parents for spending all of that money. These are also the degrees we all joke about in private (you know: "Julie has a 3.7,"- "yeah, but her degree is in organizational studies"- "oh").

The claim that an organizational degree is broad and inclusive of many aspects of life is laughable. To say this is to assume, by corollary, that every other degree is narrow and non-inclusive. If you are a pre-organizational studies major, do yourself and your parents a favor and study something that will help you and society out in the future. Perhaps a concentration that might help in landing a job.

Brock VandenBerg

Alumnus

Palestinians need their land, freedom

To the Daily:

Recently the events in the Middle East has seen over 100 Palestinians killed by Israeli soldiers. Many of these stone throwing Palestinian civilians are children being matched by Israeli soldiers with live ammunition, rubber bullets and on the weekend by U.S.-built tanks and Apache helicopter gunships.

I wonder, why is this going on? Why has this been continuously going on for over 50 years? I visited Israel this summer and realized why. Palestinians strive to become an independent people free of Israeli occupation and aggression.

I condemn bloodshed on both sides, however Palestinians are now a people without a land, without a voice and many are refugees strewn all across the globe. They are a people subjected to daily humiliations and frustrations and live in poverty. When we see Palestinians on CNN demonstrating and throwing stones they are expressing their frustrations which have been growing since 1948. As any other people, Palestinians deserve their independence and deserve to live freely on their own land in peace without Israeli occupation. Peace "talks" won't will solve this problem, international law will.

United Nations resolutions 242 and 338 (among others) call upon Israel, the occupying power, to abide scrupulously by its legal obligations and responsibilities under the Fourth Geneva Convention, which is applicable to all the territories occupied by Israel and calls for the return of occupied East Jerusalem and the West Bank to the Palestinian people. It's as simple as that.

Palestinians need freedom. They need their land back. They don't enjoy seeing their own children being killed every day - however as long as Israel occupies parts of the West Bank and East Jerusalem what we see on TV will happen again and again. Their leaders can "talk" about peace forever but peace won't happen on the ground until the Palestinian people regain their freedoms and occupied lands.

Sam Dajani

Dental hygiene junior