Concerned about sensational images with SSDP piece
I’m writing in regards to the article on Students for Sensible Drug Policy (SSDP) that ran in the March 10 edition of The Defender. While the article’s content was accurate and representative of my efforts and vision for SSDP at St. Michael’s, the photos of marijuana and marijuana paraphernalia were irrelevant to the content of the article (and the purpose of the SSDP chapter) and were therefore misleading.
The photos serve to perpetuate a negative stigma that is counter productive to what I hope to accomplish with a St. Michael’s chapter of SSDP; my primary objective is to stimulate conversations in the student body here at St. Michael’s about the pros and cons of current drug policy, and to provide a forum for students to get their questions answered about how drugs of abuse affect the human body.
Timothy Monbleau article was well written and accurate, but I believe the pictures of the marijuana and paraphernalia were placed instrumentally and strictly for “shock value.” I expect more from my student newspaper than tabloid tactics. In the sense that the pictures were incongruent with the article; I would imagine that readers of the paper, like myself, were insulted by what was a juvenile ploy to grab their attention.
Furthermore, I did not provide consent to have my picture placed amidst photographs of illegal drugs. Whether or not you and your staff were intending to assault my character, you did so.
Mike Lavelle
Class of 2010
Job market in worse shape than anyone realizes
I’m a recent graduate of St. Michael’s College, with a degree in political science. I completed my French minor at the Sorbonne in Paris as a junior. I graduated with a GPA close to 3.5, and worked hard for it for all four years, writing, reading, and presenting. Before that, I worked just as hard to graduate in the top half of my class at Cape Cod Academy 5 years ago, to make a formal education at St. Mike’s and the Sorbonne possible.
I can name a hundred other equally educated, recent graduates of four-year colleges and universities who have the same to show for it as I do: nothing. And it’s not for lack of ambition, or lack of applying, or lack of trying. I know for a fact that employers have consistently ignored the applications (and not just mine) of qualified, college educated individuals, in favor of some other person, whom I’m not even sure exists.
My generation is 23 years old, with untouched bachelor’s degrees, and we cannot get a job. The 22, 21, and 20 year olds aren’t going to get jobs either. I hope everyone outside my unlucky generation realizes this.
Michael Ricciardi
Class of 2008
Fix it With Five donations should be voluntary
The Fix it With Five program should not be funded by the S.A.
As a student-athlete at St. Michael's College that feels the effect of underfunding, allocation of money at the college is important to me.
Monday, March 9, 2009 the S.A. approved by a vote of 57-56 the Fix it With Five amendment. This amendment creates a Fix it With Five program that will take $5 from every student's activities fee to be given to an as-of-yet unnamed charity. Fix it With Five will give away approximately $10,000 that will not be used on campus.
The student weight room is poor at best, the housing situation is a mess, every athletic team is underfunded, and the faculty is constrained by a funding freeze. Despite these funding issues on-campus, is the S.A. is prepared to give away $10,000?
Fix it With Five is a wonderful idea that was executed poorly. The charity of every student on campus is now involuntary and we need to create a situation in which students actively and knowingly give back. I propose that we include an educational pamphlet with each tuition statement that encourages a donation to Fix it With Five that is independent of the activities fee. This will not only keep the S.A. budget on campus, but will create a workable situation for the Fix it With Five program to operate.
Tully LaBelle-Hamer
Class of 2011
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