Articles written by Opinion Staff

Our View: Poor move for SGA Senate to vote against Foy naming resolution

wpolley — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 00:35:38 -0500

This was our chance.

This was our chance as a student body to unite and make clear our desire for the Student Center to carry the name of Dean James E. Foy.

We want the whole student body to be able to see the language in the resolution and what it was actually asking for, so here is a portion of the resolution titled “Resolution Concerning the Naming of the Student Center.”

“THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the Student Senate and the Auburn University Student Government Association asks the Board of Trustees and the Auburn University administration to find a suitable solution for all sides to keep Dean Foy’s legacy intact by naming the current student union building in some capacity after James E. Foy.”

What makes the rejection of this resolution all the more stunning is how accommodating this resolution would have been to the Board of Trustees.

In the final lines of the resolution, the Senate gave them a way to fix this by saying “in some capacity.”

This means the building could have been named after Foy, while the highly sought-after donor’s name could have been joined to the name with a hyphen at a later date.

Our View: The American Cancer Society’s ‘Smokeout’ day may help folks quit

wpolley — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 23:02:00 -0500

The American Cancer Society’s 33rd Annual Great American Smokeout will take place on Nov. 20.

The day is an attempt to help cigarette smokers quit smoking, using a one-day-at-a-time mindset similar to the approach Alcoholics

Anonymous uses to get people to quit drinking.

We really hope this works, but our cynicism levels are off the charts.

It reminds us of people who pledge to not eat for one day to create awareness for world hunger, but as soon as it is over they are ordering Big Macs at midnight.

Smoking is a habit that no doubt can lead to many medical problems down the road, including strokes, heart disease and various types of cancer.

But it is for that very reason we will probably underestimate the effectiveness of this campaign.

Smoking’s effects are often too far off for the smokers or their friends to notice the habit is having an adverse effect on their health.

“How was your day not smoking?”

“It sucked. Do you have a light?”

We have heard many of our smoker friends make remarks like “I can’t run like I used to.”

Our View: Auburn should be The Friendliest Village on the Plains every weekend

wpolley — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 23:01:00 -0500

“The Friendliest Village on the Plains Day” was on Nov. 8, homecoming Saturday.

The holiday was born out of the idea of Dr. Thomas Maple and the Lee County Auburn Club, which was to encourage Auburn fans and students to be courteous to the fans of visiting teams.

The campaign is funded by the sale of lapel pins featuring Aubie, which can be bought for $5 at Tiger Rags.

One thing that has always set Auburn apart from other campuses is our ability to separate the playful ribbing that comes from a multi-generational football rivalry from our ability to act as decent human beings.

Yes, we Auburn fans hope we win, but we will gladly tell visitors where they can find the closest Subway.

And we all have our horror stories of interacting with fans from other teams, regardless of whether the incidents took place on our campus or another.

“They yelled at me and I wasn’t even wearing Auburn colors.”

“He broke that guy’s nose just for saying ‘War Eagle’ to them.”

“They threw beer on the people in the tunnels that lead to our seats.”

Our View: Election of Sen. Barack Obama shatters barrier and inspires world

wpolley — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 23:41:00 -0500

Well that’s over.

For many of us on staff, this was our first trip to the voting booth, and the general consensus is it was a pretty enjoyable experience.

When we heard of the long lines occurring across the country, we took the necessary measures.

We packed snacks, we brought chairs and we tried to think of non-offensive topics we could chat about with our line-mates to not incite a heated discussion.

“Seen any puppies lately?”

“Why don’t we use Scantrons? Am I right?”

But then we got to our designated polling places, with their alphabetically separated groups, and before we could reach for our Teddy Grahams and folding chairs, there was a black felt-tip marker in our hands, and we were connecting the two ends of an arrow. We were then struck with a realization.

Auburn has this thing down.

It was a remarkably smooth process for all of our staff members, with the longest any of us having to wait being 20 minutes, and we were proud of our town for having such a streamlined system.

We got in, we got out and we got back to work or home.

Our View: Alabama’s approach to educate teachers about Autism is genius

wpolley — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 23:40:00 -0500

Alabama will be using the Distance Learning Program to equip the state’s teachers with the necessary skills to better teach students with Autism.

The Distance Learning Program utilizes a webcam system and has been used to teach students miles away from their teachers.

Because the Internet is already widely used within Alabama school systems, the costs will be almost nonexistant.

They are utilizing what we already have.

Using this method as a form of job training to keep costs low and allowing teachers to not have to take time off to travel to another area of the country and attend a conference is novel.

This is the kind of thing we at The Plainsman are fans of, which is when good ideas and noble intentions do not suffer from setbacks because of flawed execution.

We like seeing the parents of children with Autism take the steps necessary to get their children quality educations, and we also like seeing the state of Alabama take steps to accomodate a growing segment of our population.

Our View: Beat Bama Food Drive is chance to reclaim our title after last year’s loss

wpolley — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 22:43:00 -0400

The Beat Bama Food Drive kicked off Oct. 20, and we need to win in this food- collecting battle against the University of Alabama.

The food drive is a serious endeavor meant to help many hungry people.

But this food drive is also our chance to reclaim what was once ours.

Auburn has won nine of the 14 past food drive competitions, but the University of Alabama embarrassed us last year with a huge amount of food: 241,336 pounds.

Ordinarily, we would attempt to rally the student body just for the sake of a comeback.

But this year, the call to defend our food-collecting honor is even louder.

The Plainsman made a deal with the University of Alabama’s student newspaper, The Crimson White, where each paper’s editor would write a guest column regarding the food drive in the other paper.

It was meant to be pleasant. It was meant to be nice.

But when Corey Craft, editor-in-chief of The Crimson White, e-mailed us his column, the stakes were raised.

Have you seen that column over to the right?

Our View: Halloween is upon us, chimney smoke and candy wrappers abound

wpolley — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 22:40:00 -0400

Halloween, the only holiday where if you put more effort into decorating for it than Christmas you are labeled a Satanist by your neighbors, is tomorrow, and we at The Plainsman want to offer up some tips for college students experiencing the holiday.

—Drive safely while you are out on the town Friday night.

There will be many little kids about, and some will be wearing darkly colored costumes.

We remember agreeing to wear the dorky reflector vests only to rip them off and put them in the bottom of our candy bag until 10 minutes before we return home, so it would be safe to assume today’s kids will do the same.

So watch out, because there is nothing more horrifying than hitting a tiny Darth Vader with your Civic, and the results may not be reversible, no matter how much Force power the child thought they possessed.

—Don’t drive at all if you’ve been drinking. This one is obvious, but people still seem to forget doing so is a bad idea for everyone involved.

—Go to one of the costume parties that will no doubt be happening downtown.

Our View: File-sharing illegality puts school in a tough place, students in a tougher one

wpolley — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 22:55:00 -0400

Using file-sharing programs like Limewire and Kazaa can get you locked out of your TigerMail and AU Access accounts, so it is just not worth it to download music illegally.

Auburn has already seen 164 instances of students being caught sharing music illegally, and of those 164, 13 had legal action take against them.

The Office of Information Technology has a section on their Web site about the situation.

If students need any reason other than a moral one to not steal music, they can check out the possible fines and penalties listed on the site.

The Web site states, “Criminal penalties for first-time offenders can be as high as five years in prison and $250,000 in fines even if you didn’t do it for monetary or commercial gain. Civil penalties can run into many thousands of dollars in damages and legal fees from $750 up to $150,000 PER SONG.”

It is no wonder the government would turn to colleges and universities to crack down on illegal downloading.

We think it is for three reasons they have picked Auburn as a target.

Our View: The delayed debut announcement of The Plainsman staff’s blog site

wpolley — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 22:54:00 -0400

In an attempt to keep up with the ever-changing media landscape, we staff members of The Plainsman can now add “blogger” to our list of duties in service of the paper.

Since the beginning of October, we have been sounding off at blog.theplainsman.com on the subjects we deem important (or arbitrary) enough to demand our opinions.

So far, the topics covered have included concerts we have been to, typos on stadium signage, upcoming DVDs and video games we are looking forward to, sports opinions and our views on political happenings.

With this being a weekly paper, having a blog will allow us to release content more quickly.

The Auburn Plainsman Blog is one of the few places you have the chance to get a look at the personalities who create this newspaper every week.

This is your chance to see who on staff despises “Rock of Love: Charm School” or who on staff misses Mike Huckabee, if you are interested in knowing that kind of thing.

Our View: Student Center should be named for one with biggest spirit, not deepest pockets

wpolley — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 21:33:00 -0400

The name of the shiny new Student Center students are breaking in is up for sale.

The University recently revealed the building would not carry the name of former Dean of Students James E. Foy to the dismay of many, including those who spearheaded the effort for the construction of the new union.

Instead, the University has decided it will name the building after a donor willing to pay $25 million, roughly half the cost of the building.

Understandably, alumni and current students do not like this idea, and neither do we at The Plainsman.

The Plainsman has received more letters in the past weeks in relation to the naming of the new union than any other issue to warrant a letter in our mailbox, and everyone has sent a plea, from students and alumni in favor of having the Foy name carry over to the new building.

The old student union was the center of student life, much like the new one has become, and it was for this reason the Auburn Union was renamed in 1977 in honor of the man who served as the dean of student affairs for 25 years.