There has to be an alternative to overeating as a source of entertainment and unification among students at GW. Over the past few months, various student and administrative organizations have taken to sponsoring frequent eating contests where students are awarded substantial prizes for consuming in volume. As students at a prosperous and fortunate university, we should not be involved in such a repeated selfish activity.

The disparity among the actions of student groups is sending the wrong message to the GW community and to a much larger population. One week there are posters and a noble effort for the Help the Homeless Walk-A-Thon, and the next week we spit in the faces of the homeless and hungry with a surfeit of Big Burgers, Subway sandwiches, GWings and, most recently, banana splits. How does this reflect or help the substantial underprivileged community in D.C.? Who will justify the premise of a University eating contest to a hungry child?

I hope both the University and student groups will stop funding and promoting such glut-fests. There are better ways to have fun. Regularly scheduled eating contests are spreading the wrong image: that GW students and University administrators have plenty while others have nothing. Eventually it becomes clear that we do not care about the plight of others.

-Brian Pfeffer,
senior