Like `Waiting for Godot’

The Student Association isn’t fun. I know that I’m not supposed to talk about it. I’m only a student and not an SA tool. But I like to challenge the SA.

I want to attend an SA Senate meeting without being afraid that I’ll be there for three hours. Is there really any reason to attend these meetings unless you are an SA “political insider”?

I want to see an election in which the candidates realize what their position can and cannot do. Work hard? Yes. Coca-Cola? No. Listen? Yes. Stop tuition increases? No.

I’m not in the Student Association, but I am in a couple of student groups. All the SA can really do for me is make the student group funding process easier.

All of these fliers I have been receiving in my box this year are the same:

“I will lower tuition.”

“I will give you Coca-Cola.”

“I will bring REAL change.”

“REAL solutions for REAL problems.”

Sounds like a lot of people have been offering real solutions to real problems for a really long time now. And I am real sick of it.

I also noticed that several candidates now highlight how many times they have had their name appear in The GW Hatchet. In fact, if you go to some candidates’ Web sites, they tell you every time The Hatchet has mentioned their name.

Why?

No offense to The Hatchet, but I think any random student can get their names in print if that’s all they care about.

I want the SA to be made up of real people. People who aren’t going to be in the SA office 24 hours a day. I think our SA should be students who are a part of the community, who are involved outside of the SA and interact with non-SA type people.

I hope “none of the above” is not the best choice this year. I hope some candidates are running to help and not just to win.

-Brett Yost
freshman

Keep the tradition alive

Why try to destroy a time-honored tradition? In the Feb. 22 editorial “Worth a try” (p. 4), The GW Hatchet supported Dartmouth College’s decision to make its Greek-letter system coed. It is understood that Dartmouth’s motives behind making the Greek-letter system coed is to eventually end the Greek-letter system completely.

My question is why destroy something that has brought so much good because of a few problems. Why not fix the problems instead of destroying the system? Granted, nationally there has been a few problems in the Greek-letter system, although many of the Greek-letter systems around the country have brought more good to their students and campuses than bad.

For many people, a sense of belonging and companionship is found through a fraternity or sorority. In many large campuses without this sense of a community within a community, many students would be “eaten up in the crowd.”

Maybe there are some Greek-letter systems that are not operating properly, but that does not mean that the Greek-letter systems are not doing good for their schools. Many Greek-letter communities on the GW campus organize fund-raisers, community service projects and social events for the GW community.

If the Greek-letter system was coed, a sense of loyalty, and yes I am going to say it, brotherhood and sisterhood would be lost. The pride in wearing one’s letters would be diminished. Obviously people on our campus are not having trouble finding others of the opposite sex (how promiscuous is Thurston Hall?). So why can’t we leave alone those Greek-letter communities that are doing things properly.

Maybe for once some administration could actually weed out problems instead of doing the easy thing and eliminating it all. Let the men and women here make genuine friends of the same sex. Let’s keep an honored tradition alive.

-Devin Heritage
freshman

Clarification required

According to a two-page political advertisement for Phil Meisner and Cat Sadler in the Feb. 1 issue of The GW Hatchet (pages 12-13), the GW Habitat for Humanity organization paid for and endorsed these two candidates.

However, Habitat for Humanity never gave and never will give any such endorsement to these or any other candidates. Habitat for Humanity is a non-profit organization dedicated to helping low-income families build their own homes. The organization is in no way political and it never intends to be.

-Michael Hankey
president, GW Habitat for Humanity