Letters to the Editor

>Get rid of Aramark

As the Daily reported Wednesday, famed ice cream maker Ben & Jerry's has dropped Michael Foods as its battery cage egg supplier and has now begun the transition to exclusively use "Certified Humane" cage-free eggs. Thus, the difference between a socially responsible company and a company that cares nothing about social responsibility has been demonstrated.

University Dining Services (operated by Aramark) was confronted with the same cruel photos, videos, and customer outrage as Ben & Jerry's concerning the abusive treatment of hens by Michael Foods. While Ben & Jerry's has decided to remove its support to this factory farm cruelty, UDS has ignored animal cruelty and the wishes of University students by continuing to serve us eggs from hens trapped inside Michael Foods' giant factory farms. In this company's massive sheds, each bird is given less space than a single sheet of paper inside a barren cage to live out its entire life.

It's now time to work with the University administration to bring a different food service provider on campus that will actually take social responsibility seriously. Until this occurs, I am embarrassed and ashamed that my tuition dollars continue to line the pockets of Aramark employees.

Becky Redetzke Field

University undergraduate

Sick of crime

My favorite part of every day is waking up and reading the Daily at breakfast before I go to class. Today, however, it was not a good idea to read the paper as I ate. I quickly learned that in the past week there have been two more attacks on students very near campus. The attacks have gone beyond beatings on the street to armed robberies and hate crimes. I was literally sickened that two men were gay-bashed a few blocks from campus.

The University has a reputation for being open and progressive, but attacks like these make minority students fear for their safety. It seems that every day, students open the Daily and read about yet more attacks on students on or near campus with no apparent effort at curbing the rise in violent crimes.

Every article is accompanied with "an investigator has been assigned to the case," but I have yet to hear of anyone being caught or any active effort being put forth by the police. I'm sick of it. Something needs to be done around here soon.

Adam Hennings

University undergraduate

Guns not the solution

I am concerned with something that I read in the University News Service on Thursday entitled "U of M Ban on weapons being challenged by petition." It seems that students had the opportunity "to sign a petition to end the ban on weapons policy at the university." The students could sign to support the effort to allow weapons on campus.

Though I understand that there has been an increase in assaults, burglaries, etc. on campus recently, I am wondering how allowing guns on campus is going to cut down or reduce that number? Wouldn't logic and good sense tell us that it is only going to feed into this frenzy that is going on right now - attacks and assaults that are happening for no apparent reason, and burglaries and theft, "just because"?

I am failing to see how allowing weapons on campus is going to reduce the number of crimes on campus. What seems logical, however, is that it will increase the number of crimes in the sense that if someone is approached, an assault is attempted, the weapon is produced, a fight begins and either the victim or the assailant, or both, are then either hurt or, heaven forbid, killed. Then what? Where do we go from there?

Trying to keep yourself safe is the ultimate goal, right? Don't walk alone. Be aware of your surroundings. Walk in well-lit or heavily trafficked areas. Let others know where you are going and when you will be back. If you think someone is following you, check by crossing the street. If this is the case, go to the nearest public place and call the police.

Judy Grandbois

University staff

Prioritize education

Wednesday's Star Tribune reports that the University's graduation of alleged student-athletes remains very low. In the same edition, columnist Pat Reusse bemoans the contract extension of Athletics Director Joel Maturi, although academic matters did not find their way into Reusse's otherwise superb column. (Why didn't he write this way during the last session of the Legislature? The waste of $248 million of taxpayer money on the needless new stadium might have been stopped.)

As I wrote in the September-October Minnesota Magazine, the University's alumni association magazine, the public cannot afford to waste one more taxpayer dollar on athletics; big-time sports have nothing to do with education, serve only a handful of American Idle elite (including Maturi) and need to be reformed.

It's time for the Daily, Minnesota Magazine and Minnesota mainstream media to examine the role of intercollegiate athletics at the University and see just what they contribute to education and the University and as a public resource to taxpaying, voting Minnesotans, and whether the University athletic program should continue to be supported at the current level if at all. 

Will Shapira

University alumnus