Editorial cartoon ignores intricacies of Iraq conflict
The editorial cartoon in the Nov. 16 issue of The Miami Student was well below the standards of an otherwise excellent college publication. Nobody claims that Iraq will be all sunshine and long hugs when the American occupation ends. The country will devolve into civil war and chaos. The key point is that this will happen whether we leave next month, next year, or next decade-we can't put that genie back into the bottle. All that remains to be seen is how many American lives will be lost, and how many tens of billions of dollars will be wasted before that happens.
Dave Sobecki Department of Math & Stats sobeckdm@muohio.edu
Political correctness must not dominate free speech
While walking by the Seal I couldn't help but notice the bodies of several students strewn across the landscape covered in "blood." It got me thinking about what exactly our freedoms on campus are. Freedom of expression and freedom of speech is something that seems to be under fire all of time in what is supposed to be an academic and intellectual environment. Should these not be universal? Instead we see personal attacks on any activism, art, or intellectual curiosity. Recently, the institution we rely on for our academic freedom responded hastily to such an expression.
Our First Amendment doesn't come with strings attached. When a few students hang slip knots from a tree on Western, another few lay in the center of the Academic quad covered in simulation blood, a fraternity makes a T-shirt poking fun at overweight women, and when the pro-life group comes this spring to yell about how we're a culture of death, just remember that they all have that right. We all have the right to call them idiots or to call them bold. In the past year we have had "I Heart Female Orgasm," "My Life of a Feminist Porn Activist," and kind old men handing out pocket Bibles. Guess which faced a backlash by a university professor?
Recently the only freedom students have been afforded is the freedom to fall in line and follow rules of political correctness in the twisted political atmosphere that is Miami University. When we can finally relax our political, religious, and ethnic identities, maybe we'll have real dialogue. Until then we'll just continue with the meaningless banter of "Us vs. Them."
Joe Otte ottejs@muohio.edu
Professor disputes noose project approval process
I am a professor in the art department and was appalled to learn that nooses were displayed as part of an outdoor art project. After reading the editorial and lead article in the Nov. 2 Miami Student, there are several facts I would like to clarify about the information regarding this sickening incident so far.
The article states that the students involved claim that the project "was pre-approved by their professor and another member of the art department staff." However, the instructor of the course has said repeatedly that although the students were required to have the group projects pre-approved, what the students submitted for approval was very different from what they displayed. The instructor says the students proposed a series of playground type swings at different heights and there was no mention of nooses. I am also aware that the students who did the project had their plan approved via e-mail by buildings and grounds, but only in that they were not going to damage the tree. Finally, the instructor was not a full-time professor and was teaching the course for the first time. While none of this is meant to excuse the insensitivity and ignorance of this display, I would hope to correct the assertions that the piece "was a class project pre-approved by their professor and another member of the art department staff" which as far as I know, is just not true.
Ellen Jean Price Professor of Art priceej@muohio.edu
