Leave the mess out of studying
The Tuesday night before break, I thought I'd change my routine study location from Stamp Student Union to McKeldin Library. McKeldin offers various study environments from quiet to noisy and everything in between, and overall the library is a great study resource and asset to students - but that's neither here nor there.
After spending a good three hours in the WAM lab, I decided it was time for a break from my studies and to take in some refreshing night air. Exiting the lab, I entered McKeldin's Footnotes eating lounge to find a war zone. Trash was scattered about aimlessly, remnants of food riddled the tables, and I think I saw some vermin having a victory parade in the corner. All kidding aside, the Footnotes Cafe lounge was a terrible mess from my first observations at midnight and only worsened in the coming hours. About 5 a.m., when the grounds crew came in to assess their cleanup, I felt embarrassed to be sitting in the lounge.
I understand, being a hardworking student, that midterms are stressful and that people need to comfort themselves as much as possible with food and other waste-generating products, but that is no reason to be a slob. These are public locations for all students, and many will probably agree that a landfill is not an optimal study location. We're all college students and are old enough to understand the concept of a trash can. I wish everyone luck on their exams, but we need to be respectful of the environment others study in.
David Schloss Sophomore Computer Science
A vigorous student lobby
We would like to express our profound disappointment in The Diamondback story of March 14, "On housing tax, a quiet student lobby." The article did not at all convey the hours upon hours of research, discussion and negotiations the Graduate Student Government, Student Government Association and Rethinkcollegepark.net did to ensure that an ill-conceived bill did not become state law. As soon as we heard about Senate Bill 582, we immediately mobilized to prevent what could have been a disastrous situation for students. We vigorously expressed our concerns directly to the bill's sponsor - state Sen. Jim Rosapepe. We told him we were planning on testifying against SB 582. He asked that we consider a compromise instead. We agreed, and let him know that if a compromise was not to our liking, that we would in fact testify against the bill and speak out against it.
Based on our concerns, Rosapepe called a meeting of the GSG, SGA, Rethinkcollegepark.net, state legislators from District 21, city officials and a Prince George's County official. We met for several hours Sunday, March 11, to attempt to forge a compromise. We agreed on extending the fee-exempt zone to include most of the Route 1 corridor north of campus. This extended zone, which would not have happened without our participation, provides an adequate amount of land to address our long-term student housing needs. Had it not been for student involvement, we would have ended up with a fee-exempt zone hardly larger than the campus itself. I consider this a huge victory for students.
So I am puzzled that The Diamondback has implied that there was no lobbying on our part. Nothing could be further from the truth. We preserved millions of dollars in future student housing incentives.
Diamondback reporters need to research their articles more carefully and not jump prematurely to conclusions without properly examining all the facts.
Laura Moore GSG president
Emma Simson SGA president
David Daddio Rethinkcollegepark.net
Air your views
The Diamondback welcomes your comments. Address your letters or guest columns to the Opinion Desk at opinion@dbk.umd.edu. All letters and guest columns must be signed. Include your full name, year, major and day- and night-time phone numbers. Please limit letters to 300 words. Please limit guest columns to between 600 and 800 words.
Submission of a letter or guest column constitutes an exclusive, worldwide, transferable license to The Diamondback of the copyright in the material in any media. The Diamondback retains the right to edit submissions for content and length.
Policy: The signed letters, columns and cartoon represent only the opinions of the authors. The staff editorial represents the opinion of The Diamondback's editorial board and is the responsibility of the editor in chief.
Be the first to comment on this article!