In response to Linden Karas '06's letter in last week's Student, we wish to confirm that there is a system of non-emergency transportation for students stuck at Cooley Dickinson Hospital. The system was established to provide transportation when a taxicab is not available and is not intended to replace taxis, the PVTA or private cars. When a student finds him/herself at Cooley Dickinson Hospital without transportation, the student should call the Campus Police Dispatch Center. The dispatcher can provide the caller with the names and telephone numbers of taxi companies. There are funds at the Campus Police Station that may be used to pay for a taxi. In the event that no taxis are available, the officer-in-charge may authorize the SAFE ride driver or a substitute student driver to go to Cooley Dickinson Hospital and pick the stranded student up.
The February blizzard was an unusual event that prevented the system from operating properly, and we're sorry that Linden had such difficulty returning from the hospital that night.
Ben Lieber, Dean of Students
John Carter, Chief of Campus Police
Distribution of NY Times is wasteful
The AAS recently announced that it has secured funding for 200 copies of The New York Times to be distributed to students daily. With this project, the AAS intends to reduce intellectual apathy and foster more constructive campus dialogue. Program proponents also claim that our nation's current war further justifies efforts to educate the student body. The program establishes laudable and worthwhile objectives, but it is both flawed and wasteful.
As an avid reader of The New York Times, I wake up every morning and check my email, which includes the daily Times headlines. Before going to breakfast, I sit for 15 minutes and read all the sections and articles that interest me. I am not a lucky member of some exclusive club; the service to which I subscribe is absolutely free. The fact that all 1600 Amherst students can receive this service at a total cost of $0 per day, $0 per month and $0 per year demonstrates the inherent wastefulness of our new readership program. By funding this program, we are directly sponsoring considerable paper waste and a large and unnecessary financial drain of the College's resources.
Before the AAS began distributing the 200 daily copies, there were several copies of the Times available in Valentine for students to peruse during breakfast. Because of the smaller scale, this idea did not constitute such a waste, and it seemed that there were enough papers for everyone who was interested. Certainly students will now be happier with their free daily paper, but proponents of this program must ask themselves: do students ever turn down free things (e.g., mugs, pens, T-shirts)? Programs designed to improve the campus' intellectual climate should not simply reward students who are too lazy to read a newspaper via the Internet. There is no doubt that many of us prefer to have the physical paper in our hands to read it, but when student clubs and organizations consistently demonstrate needs unmet by the AAS, our aesthetic preferences appear rather petty. In an ideal world, the College could pay for all student projects, and handing out free Times would be more economically justifiable (though it would still leave the issue of paper waste unresolved). But given that we can not fund everything, it seems absurd to provide a very expensive service that every one of us can get for free.
Despite the many strong arguments against The New York Times Readership Program, I understand that the AAS approved the program by a small margin. Thus, it would seem that significant support does exist. Yet even if we are to concede that the College should provide free daily newspapers for students, we should provide publications that are unavailable for free on the Internet. I personally prefer the Times, but if we are going to purchase 200 newspapers every day, let's buy The Economist, The Wall Street Journal or any other widely-respected publication that might present some different viewpoints. We could, in fact, split up our subscriptions and buy 50 copies of four different publications to actively encourage a healthy, balanced intellectual environment. Students could share and read more than one newspaper if they wanted. This suggests a more reasonable readership program for our campus.
As it stands now, students can access almost every publication imaginable by simply going to the library and taking it off the rack. I have observed that all of these resources are vastly underutilized. If students possess a genuine interest in reading any of these publications, they are virtually always available. The library's single copies of various publications have completely absorbed student demand. Because these publications are all already available to us, I wholeheartedly believe that any newspaper readership program squanders valuable school resources. However, if such a program will inevitably continue in the future, we should at least diversify it to include a wider range of publications and perspectives.
Daniel Altschuler '04
Busy kissing up to the new boss?
As an alumnus and former employee of the College, I continue to do what I can to help the current employees.
Everyone knows that the first thing smart employees do when a new boss is announced is start kissing ass. I had anticipated helping out my former colleagues by composing short letters which would each praise a single characteristic of the president-to-be (I have a lot of free time at work). I would give each of these to a current employee, who would sign it and send it to The Student.
Imagine my chagrin to find a letter from Professor Sarat-similar to the letters I had been writing-in last week's Student which contained not one, but four of the characteristics of the new president that I had identified as praise-worthy (respected scholarship, intellectual credentials, cosmopolitan sensibility and ability to win prizes). While I cannot fault Professor Sarat for writing a letter, I certainly must reprove him for his greediness.
Any other employee should contact me if he or she wants a letter suitable for sending to The Student. Thanks to Professor Sarat, the only good qualities of the new president for which I have letters remaining are good looks, apparent good hygiene, ability to raise beautiful children and reputed liveliness. I realize these are not A-list kiss-ups, but they are all I have left.
Keith Handley '89
Editor's note: The letter from Professor Sarat was a response to an email from The Amherst Student inviting members of the political science department to comment about the school's choice of Anthony Marx as its 18th president.