Letters to the Editor

We are writing to alert the Luther community of several incidents that have happened over the past few months. Each of these incidents has an overtone that is unwelcoming and should concern us.

Upon reading Sam Wiles’ article I must admit I was left perplexed and intrigued. This was due to his use of arguments and words that had been cunningly fashioned to sound like they mean something, something important and compelling, but which upon careful analysis can be exposed as mere bull. With that said, I must say this article is in no way an attack on Mr. Wiles, his character or his intellect (both of which I hold in high esteem). Rather, it is an analysis of the faulty logic employed by Mr. Wiles in his article “Missing the Mark on the Markswoman”.

The front-page article printed in Chips (Vol. 130, No. 21) regarding trayless week was misleading, to say the least. Dealing with statistics often is, as it can be difficult to know what exactly your data is telling you. There are a number of issues that must be addressed to draw any sort of reasonable conclusions that this study failed to look at in any way.

To the Editor, Kate Stebbins and the Luther Community:

As members of the Residence Life staff, we would like to take this opportunity to respond to a few of the concerns that were raised in an April 10 letter to the editor.

To the Editor,

I must express my sincere disappointment in last week’s Chips (Vol. 130, No. 18) front-page article “Students speak out against caf tray removal.”

As a newspaper journalism professional, I found the article to be one-sided. I think the credibility of using chatter on Facebook as the main source for a news story is questionable and unethical.

As climate change becomes an increasingly important issue, it is sensible for quality institutions such as Luther to find solutions to the problem. The proposal in the Student Senate for the elimination of cafeteria trays in the next year has drawn criticism from students studying on campus and abroad.

To Whom it May Concern:

As a first-year student, I am a resident of Olson Hall. I love Luther and would not consider leaving, which is why I feel I must express my feelings about current policies. I am outraged by the alcohol policies, the new “Quiet Policy” Olson just adopted and the floor-wide fines. I’m not going to talk about the absurdity of the cafeteria hours or the strange prices and exceptions of meal transfers in this letter because that would just be too long.

After reading the article “Trays’ days numbered in caf” (Chips Vol. 130, No. 16) and Warren Palm’s comment, “We don’t have the final say on this. Ultimately, it’s what the students want,” one question came to mind: Why weren’t the students asked what they want first?

I’ve been very supportive in the past of Luther College and its efforts on the students’ behalf to lessen our carbon footprint. However, I believe this recent measure to eliminate caf trays has gone too far without justified cause. Let me first state that I am off campus this semester studying abroad, so I will be unable to participate in the trial.

Dear Editor,

Every time I turn around, someone here at Luther is talking about “diversity.” I’m all for diversity — for recognizing it, for marking it and for celebrating it.

I have to admit to being extremely excited to watch as a very talented group of Luther’s best singers opened for Ben Folds at our spring concert. Such an opportunity to set the stage for one of the world’s best performers is both rare and valuable. However, as I understand, the day of the concert brought some unfortunate news to our local artists.

Dear Editor,

The idea of “going green” seems to be on the minds of the young and old these days. Even opening up the April 2008 SHAPE issue I noticed that the pages are all lined with tips about how to “go green” and what you can do to make your home more “eco-friendly.”

Tuesday, March 3, Ben Folds had a concert here. Overall, I enjoyed the Ben Folds part of the concert (with the exception of the song that went something like “bitch went nuts”). The issues I have are by and large with other things.

Dear Luther Community,

I don’t know how familiar any of you are with our neighbors to the south at Grinnell College, but here’s some recent news from their part of the world: the weekend of Feb. 23 a student’s door was vandalized. She was apparently associated with the queer group on campus, and the things she had on her door were ripped down and replaced with anti-gay slurs.

“No sensible decision can be made any longer without taking into account not only the world as it is, but the world as it will be.”

I would like to present a response to the column “The Right Stuff: Putting frivolity ‘down to zero!’” (Chips Vol. 130, No. 13) by Pat Knapp. I appreciate Knapp expressing his opinion, although I feel it is fundamentally distracted and troublesome for our future.