No need for inauguration Web site

I couldn’t help but laugh when I saw The Hatchet’s latest editorial (“GWInauguration.com,” Dec. 8, p.4) calling for GWInauguration.com. I urge current administrators to maintain the status quo for sending information to students and disregard The Hatchet’s editorial.

I am one student who tends to believe that most people benefit from more information rather than less. What GW does not need is another system to communicate with students. I don’t want to – and frankly if it were created, I wouldn’t – regularly check a Web site for details about GW’s involvement in the inauguration. If information is important enough for me to know instantly, it should be posted on a Web site as a matter of last resort.

I am more likely to read a cell phone text message than an e-mail, and I’m more likely to read a GW InfoMail than call 202-994-5050 or go to the Campus Advisories site. During my tenure at GW, when there has been information that I needed to know instantly – such as classes being cancelled or the Metro losing power – AlertDC, GW InfoMail and breaking news alerts from The Hatchet have served me plenty well.

More information may benefit us; more information sources will muddy the waters and decrease the needed salience that information carries through existing channels.
Corbb O’Connor, Junior

What about the bus?

I enjoyed Clayton McCleskey’s “My Letter to Santa” (Dec. 4, p.8), but I’m surprised at his request for a tram system. While convenient, a tram system seems like an incredibly unnecessary expense, particularly when a very extensive bus system already exists. The area between Dupont and Logan circles is hardly a black hole – the G2 goes directly through both of them. And too many buses to list go into Georgetown (though a good recommendation for those uninitiated in bus riding is the Circulator). D.C. buses may not be as cool or as comfortable as a train or tram system, but they certainly beat walking when it’s freezing outside.
Rebecca Mimnall, Graduate student

SA needs visibility to increase effectiveness

As an alum (class of 2002) I read the article “Aswani faces backlash with cabinet” (Dec. 12, p. 1) with interest, though hardly with surprise. Ever since I was a student (and long before that – just ask Alec Baldwin) the SA has had a lot of infighting and doesn’t appear to get much done. I suggest the reason for this is that most students are apathetic about the SA. They don’t know their senators or their officials, don’t know what they do and all they see in The Hatchet is infighting – not the best way to get students motivated.

To me, the best way to conquer this apathy is visibility. If the SA had its meetings broadcast on TV, if senators were each assigned a dorm or two as a constituency and if senators and officials were required to have regular office hours somewhere obvious (Kogan Plaza, for example), students would get to know their senators, what those folks do and who to go to when something is wrong. It would also give the senators and officials more experience in dealing with the general public. It’s time for students to see something other than fighting and resignations.
Andrew Wiseman, Alumnus and former Hatchet senior staff writer