— STAFF EDITORIAL —
What’s in your wallet?
As many students may have noticed (and as it was mentioned last week on the front page of the Newswire), there is no fall concert planned at Cintas this year.
The Student Activities Council, who plans the fall and spring concerts each year, is faced with a limited budget (a little over $50,000) to put on a concert each semester.
Although this may seem like a lot, good concerts typically run outside of this range. SAC sought to bring O.A.R., The Fray and John Legend to Xavier over the summer, but each band proved too expensive.
But the Newswire cannot blame SAC for not having enough money when their budget is set by the university.
Instead, we would like to call on the administration to increase SGA’s budget (and thus, SAC’s budget) enough to host an enjoyable fall concert.
SGA advertises that one percent of students’ tuition goes directly toward events for students. Asking for another, say, $20,000 may seem extensive and greedy.
However, consider the—let’s say generosity—with which Xavier has been spending money recently.
The university just spent $290,000 to buy the Woods (appraised at $97,000) and over eight million to purchase Zumbiel building (appraised at over two million).
Those numbers don’t even include the money Xavier will have to spend to demolish the buildings (and we’re guessing Xavier will hire professionals instead of letting students go nuts with dynamite).
An extra $20,000 would be .22% of the combined cost of the rights to these buildings, a figure which only scratch the surface of how much it is spending on the entire east campus expansion. An extra $20,000 is quite inconsequential in the context of the school’s big financial picture, yet would be very significant to the students.
This question brings up a larger issue: Xavier must plan for the future and continue to expand and improve its campus for future classes. Obviously, current students’ tuition has to foot the bill for this. After all, we are presently enjoying an improved campus paid for by students from ten years ago.
Of course, it must also do what it can to make life on campus enjoyable and interesting.
The school must strike a balance between money spent on the future and money spent for students who are here now.
The fact is that SAC does not have enough money to host a traditional event at Xavier, the fall concert.Many other clubs and organizations around campus are limited in their activities because of inadequate budgets (like um, us).
The Newswire believes that Xavier should consider shifting this balance, just a small amount, toward the lives of the students who are here now. This may be especially pertinent given the fact that the Woods is closed, undoubtedly leaving many 21-and-older upperclassmen without anything to do except study.
Unless Xavier expects our fall entertainment to come solely from watching the destruction of the Zumbiel plant in October (as awesome as that will be), it should give SAC enough money to host a fall concert. After all, that would be a great deal cheaper than what it is paying for the plant.
Mads’ stuff
Madeline LaFave
Editorial Columnist
While handing out a few cold ones to the eager recipients in the suites at the Xavier v. U Mass game, I remarked on the epic battle underway on the court. The man I was serving immediately responded, “Do you even know who’s playing?”
Smiling genuinely despite the inaccuracy of his assumption, I replied, “Yeah, I do, and what a great game. Did you ask me that because I am blonde and a girl?” To this he responded with a quick “No,” and turned away.
A few minutes later, the man approached me saying, “You were absolutely right. I did say that because you were blonde and a girl and I’m sorry. Thank you for calling me out on it.” I smiled and replied, “No problem, it happens all the time.”
It happens all the time. What I really wanted to do was smack him and say that basketball was my life from age four until 18 and the only reason I’m not currently beer-filled and sitting down in the student section is for the mere reason that I’d like the tips from the inebriated, business-account funded guests.
I did achieve, however, much satisfaction from respectfully acknowledging that his assumptive statement about me was incorrect, thus leading to his sincere apology.
Now, I’m no feminist. I mean, I’m all about my sexuality and my blonde hair, but I realize that most of you neither want nor need to read anymore feminist bullshit, which is why I intend to present you with the no-bullshit version of my opinion.
About the perception many have about the competency of females.
I consider myself to be an ordinarily confident, competent, driven female, yet too many times I have felt inadequate merely because I am treated that way. Sure, I’m happy to confront the offender, but if I raise hell, I’m just another “angry feminist.”
Now, I also realize that girls get a lot of things in life easy. Ann Coulter is tall, blonde and smokin’ hot. Political beliefs aside, I believe that last week she successfully demonstrated both poise and intelligence, her vast knowledge on the complex topics of politics and the war in Iraq, in addition to answering and reacting to questions and comments from elated and enraged audience members with both confidence and tact.
Personally, I love the fact that this woman has been able to achieve all she has and look the way she does. It is truly inspiring.
However, I can’t help but think: would she have been able to gain the same media attention if she was short, soft and plain-looking?
My point is we as women realize that we get a lot handed to us. The free drinks are pretty much endless. We know that the guys handing them to us must have some twinge of hope as to getting into our pants. We also know that they don’t know that we know that they won’t get into our pants. We are then able to use this gained knowledge to our advantage, and thus, free drinks.
However, what a lot of guys don’t realize about girls is that it is oftentimes difficult to gain respect as a person in life, and not just a sex symbol.
Just think…why do we get free stuff? Are we as females mentally, physically or economically inferior to males? Are males sexually inferior to females and therefore attempting to gain our favor in every other aspect of social action so they have a chance at getting some?
Yes, we do like the attention, its not like we’d uglify ourselves just for some respect…I mean “Superbad” Seth would say that’d be like slapping God across the face for giving us a beautiful gift.
I encourage girls to confront these stereotypes, and boys to recognize them. I realize that we will all judge and be judged based on appearances, and this may never change.
Girls will continue to take free drinks from boys for nothing in return, Ann Coulter will never be as ugly as her words, and I will always, always be proud of my blonde hair.
Enough is enough!
Ryan Nemeth
Guest Columnist
Xavier, I cannot thank you enough for allowing the controversial (but intelligent, informed and gorgeous) Ann Coulter to speak on your campus.
I have something to say to all you Lefty Loonies out there: maybe for once you should realize that someone else has a point of view.And when I say “someone else” I mean Ann Coulter.
I’m sure all the liberals out there have a hard time accepting the fact that Ms. Coulter is actually right about a lot (all) of the things she says.I would even say that she’s more right than the news half of the time! Maybe even three-fourths of the time!
To all the people who whined about her speech, or boycotted her speech, or protested her speech, or attended her speech but politely disagreed with her and refused to laugh at her jokes, I have this to say: Really—who do you think you are?
I’m sure if Abe Lincoln climbed out of his grave and walked his smelly, rotting corpse all the way to Xavier’s campus to give a speech you would love it.
And you would applaud Zombie Lincoln no matter what he said. Hypocrites.
During her speech, Ms. Coulter reminded us just how many books she’s sold. And I know what you’re thinking, Democrats: “So what? Hitler sold a lot of books, too.”
But you know what I have to say to that? Hitler wasn’t a smoking hot blonde bombshell like Ms. Coulter! (Perhaps his looks had something to do with his military defeat. Sadly, we’ll never know.)
Ms. Coulter is so attractive that she could star in her own swimsuit calendar and be the model on every page.
Heck, she’s so hot that she could pose for swimsuit photos on the polar ice caps that the Liberals cherish so dearly.
And that’s another thing: everyone knows there’s no such thing as “ice caps” anyway.
Just another pretty sounding invention of the liberal media.
Enough is enough!
Proud to be a Muskie
At Ann Coulter’s speech last week, I laughed, I am pretty sure I saw someone crying, and no Xavier students were escorted off the premises.
That last one is quite an achievement considering the number of people who publicly opposed her coming here.
Not only was there no mud slinging, except of course the specks Ann herself threw at “Godless liberals” during her talk, but she ranked Xavier as one of the best schools she has visited—not because everyone in the audience agreed with her, but because we were civil about the topics we disagreed with and the way questions were asked.
Personally, I attended the event for the entertainment value of seeing egg-headed liberals and bull-headed conservatives in the same room yelling at each other.
I was disappointed in that there was no yelling, but I am proud to say that I am a Xavier student.
Despite the fact that Miss Coulter kept confusing us with the smaller and lesser known Xavier College in Chicago, her comments about the “liberal” students who are able to ask good questions and handle themselves in a debate give the school a great amount of credibility.
We, as a student body, should be proud that not only were we willing to see both sides of the spectrum, but we were also able to offer our own opinions, both in opposition and accordance with Ms. Coulter’s in an orderly and civil manner.
One of the principles of a Jesuit education is that the student is intellectually competent: this requires that we ask questions and seek answers, not just from the people we agree with but also from people with whom we may not agree.
The ability to see both sides allows a person to find what Aristotle calls the “golden middle.”
I commend my fellow students who attended, seeking the truth, and I thank the College Republicans for inviting Ms. Coulter to give us her own perspective so that we may find the truth that lies between the far right and the far left.
Thadeus Winker
Class of 2010
No Joke
I saw Ann Coulter and she did not give any substantial arguments.
Instead, she belabored a simple rhetorical equation to create dull-minded humor.
She assumed homogeneity of all liberals and presented different people’s diverse thoughts as contradictions. Her comedy routine relied on these contrived contradictions.
It appalls me that students who consider themselves educated think that Coulter contributes to intelligent political dialogue.
Algis Aukstuolis Class of 2008
In memoriam
Let us remember those who were murdered on September 11, 2001 in NYC and D.C., such that they do not die in vain, reminding us of the insidious effects of hate and corrosive propensity of vengeance.
Dr. Kam C. Wong
Chair, Department of
Criminal Justice
Darren LaCour
Op-Ed Editor
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