Newspapers / The Guilfordian (Greensboro, N.C.) / Feb. 14, 1997, edition 1 / Page 14
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14 T™ I The rorum editorial board Keir Bickerstaffe Lindsay Oldenski Courtney Christian Ben Thorne statement of purpose The Forum exists to facilitate dialogue and expression on matters of importance to Guilford College and its mission. Toward this end, active community participation in these pages is vitai. editorial policy Every effort will be made to print appropriate submissions of editorials, cartoons and letters to the editor. They must be signed, with the phone number of the author or artist included. Editorials must be no longer than 400 words and letters to the editor must be no more than 250 words. The Guilfordian reserves the right to edit submissions for grammatical correctness and brevity. The Guilfordian —i Student leaders must keep a sense of perspective This past Wednesday, Community Sen ate spent nearly 45 minutes debating the Marasco addendum to the Vitaglione amendment. For the hundreds of you clueless as to this proposed piece of legis lation, it has to do with the amount of time it would take Senate to approve spending to certain big organizations in times of cri sis. A fairly important topic. But was it important enough to leave one senator in tears and several others with hurt feelings? The ugly scene that took place in Boren Lounge Wednesday is no doubt a result of Internet rates in danger DANIEL SUMMERS staff writer The following was sent to me by a friend over the internet. "I am writing you this to in form you of a very important matter currently under review by the FCC. Your local telephone company has filed a proposal with the FCC to impose per minute charges for your internet service. They contend that your usage has or will hinder the operation of the telephone net work. It is my belief that internet usage will diminish if users were required to pay addi tional per minute charges. The FCC has cre ated an email box for your comments, re sponses must be received by February 13 1997. Send your comments to ispo@fcc.gov and tell them what you think. Every phone company is in on this one, and they are trying to sneak it in just under the wire for litigation. Let every one you know hear this one. Get the e-mail address to everyone you can think ofisp@fcc.govPlease forward this e-mail to all Religious diversity is not lacking at Guilford As the "official pagan" (thus dubbed by Max Carter) of Guilford College, I am deeply hurt by Lindsay Oldenski's accusation last week that Guilford's Quaker Heritage is stifling religious diversity here on campus. I have been active in GRCO (the student organization sponsoring religious em phasis week) for four years and can testify for Guilford's religious diver sity. Max Carter actively recruited me as he has many religious minorities to be a member of GCRO and contrib ute to the diverse programing options here on campus. I even wrote a "wel come to Guilco" letter this summer to someone interested in pagan activities on campus. The Quaker community has welcomed me as they would wel come any other student, and have sup- forum the amazing amount of responsibility stu dent leaders at Guilford are given. In such an atmosphere, where college students are subject to very adult pressures, these bad scenes are easily explainable. But they are not excusable. In these leadership roles, students of ten seem to lose sight of the "big picture," turning harmless issues into matters of personal pride. Egos and false senses of importance abound. Maybe the Marasco addendum is un necessary. Conversely, it might add clar ity to the Senate constitution. your friends on the internet so all our voices may be heard! Jim Cashatt0 M When I received this, I was angry and scared. If this thing goes through, then we are all in danger. I mean, imagine how many minutes you spend on the internet a day. Just the average e-mail takes me anywhere from 5 to 10 minutes. My family and old friends communicate to me daily via the internet. I don't know if i could still be as close to pre-Guilford friends without my e-mail. I know that we would still be friends, but without e mail I would not be capable of knowing what happened to them that day. With out that knowledge, I couldn't give them help on their problems. I also couldn't receive help on my own problems. The internet has been my psychologist in a lot of ways. And what's worse, personal e-mails aren't the only way that this will harm us. PALS, the on-line catalog that our library uses to catalog its holdings Letters ported me through my spiritual growing pains these past four years. I consider Lindsay's last two para graphs both contradictory and saddening. Rather than the Gideons handing out the Bibles, would she rather members of IV go door to door seeking conversions, as they did a few years before my arrival? Who has been trying to convert her here? What kind of dialogue between sects and faiths can occur in such an atmosphere of fear and distrust as Lindsay seems to hold around herself? While I, too, am frustrated by those- Christian and otherwise alike- who con sider theirs the one true faith, I have found these folk to be a small minority. The vast majority of faithful with whom I have spo ken have been open to friendly dialogue or respectful of my desire to abstain. GCRO provides a neutral and welcom ing space for discussion of religious issues. I encourage Lindsay or anyone eise with February 14,1997 But in the grand scheme of things, the proposal is not worth the vitriolic mud slinging that seemed to occur. It's just not that important. Senate and Union elections will be held this coming Tuesday. The winners will be inheriting a lot of the responsibil ity previously mentioned. Let the message of this past Wednes day stay in the hearts of these students— the duties of student leaders are second ary to our academic growth and our growth as members of a community. Let's concentrate on that. along with the holdings at other libraries, are accessed through the internet. I don't know how I would have compiled all the information that I did for my reports last year without internet access. Another question, could Guilford pay for our access anymore? I cherish that my school offers free unlim ited internet access. Guilford was doing this long before America On Line had the guts to do so. In fact, many of Guilford's classes rely on the VAXNOTES to teach outside of the normal classroom. Just how much "harm" will or has the internet done? Maybe a better question is how much greed actu ally runs our nation? I admit that charging per minute for internet usage sounds ridicu lous, but I have learned that the ridiculous and the United States Government often go hand in hand. The deadline for responses is passed by now, but I don't care! If you're angry like me, then go ahead and write to them. Let's use this thing while we still have it. concerns about religious diversity on this campus to attend our meetings and see just how welcoming Guilford can be. Respectfully, Laura Davis Factual notes: -The Gideons could not have come onto campus and distributed materials with out sponsorship from a campus organiza tion. GCRO provided such sponsorship with the condition that those coming did not pros elytize students. -While there were only two decidedly non-Christian activities sponsored during Religious Emphasis Week, others were non sectarian or trans-sectarian. -GCRO sponsors both Religious empha sis week and the fireside worship sharings. To ask a previous speaker to return in the same year would be redundant and some what disrespectful of those who came to speak.
The Guilfordian (Greensboro, N.C.)
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Feb. 14, 1997, edition 1
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