OPINIONS

Page 6

Campus Times

Serving the University of Rochester community since 1873.

Editorial Board
DANA HILFINGER REBECCA LEBER ANDREW OTIS
WILLIE CLARK KRISTA LOMBARDO

Yet to be filled
Its been a little over a year since the inception of Fill Fauver/
Pack the Palestra, and while at times the program has seen
success, it is time the Students Association re-evaluated its
strategy. Despite the efforts of the programs coordinators,
sophomores Jesse Cramer and Trey Socash, attendance at
games is sporadic. Perhaps the biggest problem facing the
program is not the result, but the method.
This past Friday, the SA government and Chi Phi Fraternity
sponsored Stuff Speegle for the swim teams first home meet
the same night as the mens and womens soccer games
against Emory University. While it is inevitable that this kind
of overlap will sometimes occur, the organizing body behind
this initiative would do well to continuously communicate with
head coaches throughout the season to understand the magnitude of the concurrent match: Emorys mens soccer team
was last years University Athletic Association champion and
a perennially tough opponent; the swim meets were two days
long and Stuff Speegle could just as easily have been held on
Saturday, when no other sporting events were at home.
The current system, where Fill Fauver/Pack the Palestra
dates are chosen at the beginning of the semester, allows the SA
little flexibility to support teams in crucial matchups. When the
womens field hockey team played William Smith College and
Skidmore College two weeks ago, the implications of the game
were huge win and they made the Liberty League playoffs
for the first time since 2005. Still, the stands at Fauver Stadium
during both games were virtually devoid of students.
A more ad hoc approach is needed. Perhaps there will always
be less support at a field hockey game than a soccer or football
game, but by choosing games that feature less consequential
matchups, the SA is hardly giving the sport a chance. Instead,
the committee could operate more on an as-needed basis,
collaborating with other organizations to sponsor at least one
home event per sport each year (as they already do), but then
also taking the extra step to get support at the games where
the athletes could really use it.

Group advising
The onus of running a successful student group relies heavily upon student leaders shoulders. Still, every group, from
the highly successful to the practically defunct, has a club
adviser, who is an experienced resource to help groups thrive
and navigate administrative red tape. Unfortunately, advising
is an oft-overlooked asset within the Students Association.
One reason may be that student officers dont realize that
the adviser can do more than simply sign an occasional form.
But a second and more considerable problem is that there are
not enough advisers to adequately cover student groups.
A handful of advisers oversee large, and at times unwieldy,
group categories for example, one adviser alone is in charge
of over 20 performance groups and the 13 cultural groups,
in addition to overseeing other administrative duties. While
there is some sense in centralizing the system so one adviser
coordinates similar interests, about eight staff cannot serve
225 (and growing) student groups well.
Groups that desire growth in new directions and more collaborative initiatives simply cannot receive adequate and personalized attention from an overstretched adviser. Graduate
students have been helping advisers with their tasks, and if
these assistants were to take on a greater role in the system and
receive more training, then they can personally help students
where full-time advisers cannot.
Students certainly still desire their autonomy. But expanding
the adviser system does not mean students need to sacrifice
their independence. An expanded advising system would mean
groups that proactively want the help will have better access
to it, as well as a sufficient system to accomplish and better
develop their initiatives.

Full responsibility for material appearing in this publication rests with the Editor-in-Chief. Opinions
expressed in columns, letters or comics are not necessarily the views of the editors or the University of
Rochester. Editorials appearing in the Campus Times are published with the express consent of a majority
of the editorial board, which consists of the Editor-in-Chief, Managing Editor, Opinions Editor and two
other editors elected by a majority of the editorial staff. The Editor-in-Chief and the Editorial Board make
themselves available to the UR communitys ideas and concerns. Appointments can be arranged by calling
x5-5942 or by e-mail at editor@campustimes.org. The Campus Times is printed weekly on Thursdays
throughout the academic year, except around and during university holidays. The first copy is free. The
Campus Times is published on the World Wide Web at www.campustimes.org and is updated Thursdays
following publication. All materials herein are copyright 2009 by the Campus Times.

Thursday, November 5, 2009

Editorial Observers

Welcome to a non-argument
Welcome to a non-argument.
Welcome to Dada reborn.
In this article, I will refuse to
follow the artificial constructs of
the English language. Those evil
and wicked grammarians began
codifying what is right and wrong
in the 18th century. How dare they
arbitrate their will over me and
what they believe is right.
The rest of my editorial observer
will follow in a format that is neither grammatically nor stylistically
correct, consistent or standardized.
I will do my best to break the rules
both of the Campus Times and
English that constrain writing
and thought to narrow channels
of limited creativity. I will write in
the way that I want.
There is a certain futility in writing. A writers words and influence
diminish as time progresses. What
is written inevitably builds to a
greater body of thought. Weve all
read novel arguments and news
worthy of opinion. What, then, is
contrary to an argument?
This is more than a rejection of
grammar. It is a rejection of formality and propriety in writing. It is
up to you to extract what may be
any meaning. In fact, what follows
is mostly nonsense.
Beware the Grammarwock,
my son! The pens that scrathe.
The rules that bind, betwixt and
berave.

Andrew
Otis

Opinions
Editor

I drank syntaxs line. To lexicon

we are enslaved. Not his nor her,
but they. Me and you the other day,
leaving the preposition hanging as
it ought to be.
Challenge the norm. Do not believe what I say. Symbolic patterns
have lost any meaning. Consistency
is worthless. Tradition is harmful.
Content is useless.
No one reads words anymore.
All is forgotten. Writing can never
go as deep, or mean as much, as
thought. I could never learn about
everything during my lifetime or in
infinity. Sound poetry is the descent
into nothing.
I am not here right now.
I repeat myself when under
stress. I repeat myself when under
stress. I repeat myself when under
stress. My head is talking and its
saying, Ive got nothing to say to
you, so listen through my words
and find a truth that wont soothe.
Were all revolving doors searching
for something new. But, nothing
comes out thats never been said
before.
Life is the apostrophe, ending

with a phrase. In the beginning

is my end, shifting and confused.
Are you with me, or are you with
you?
You are afraid of growing old.
You are afraid of dying.
You are afraid of death.
Your moral values are bankrupt.
Avoid lifes questions. Thought is
subversive. What gets you through
life? That which brings you to
death?
I know what is good for you.
Defer to authority! Disconcerting
deference makes you a sycophant.
Twenty years of hard work may
amount to nothing. A life that is
empty will make the soul bleed. A
fear of emptiness will build its own
need. All your life is just noise, a
distraction from a void. Settle into a
life of wearisome routine. One year,
10 years, 50 years, youll look in the
mirror and see that your parents
are still alive.
This is my writing. There is much
like it, but this is mine. Without me,
my writing is nothing. Without my
writing, I am nothing.
These words convey no meaning.
How does one write not to convey
any meaning? Even gibberish conveys intent.
Back to formality. All that is
hence is mostly nonsense. So is this
how the story ends?
Otis is a member of
the class of 2011.

Where do I live?

When two people meet for the

first time, Where do you live? is
one of the first questions they pose
to each other. It does not offend
anyone can answer and, if you know
someone from that place, you have
something to keep the conversation
from fizzling for a few seconds.
This summer, while working for
my county executives reelection
campaign, I had a life-altering
revelation: for 21 years I answered
this question incorrectly.
Allow me to explain. I live in a
village, Hartsdale, in New York,
zip code 10530. Hartsdale is part of
the town of Greenburgh. From this
point on, I recommend that you have
a pen, paper and lawyer at hand.
This will blow your mind.
Six villages constitute the Town of
Greenburgh: Ardsley, Dobbs Ferry,
Elmsford, Hastings, Irvington and
Tarrytown. Now, I said that I live
in Hartsdale, a village in the Town
of Greenburgh, so why does this
list exclude it? The United States
Postal Service recognizes Hartsdale,
N.Y. 10530 and we even have a nice
wooden sign that says, Welcome
to the Village of Hartsdale. It is
because Hartsdale is not a real
place.
There is a more governmental
name for where I live: Unincorporated Greenburgh. This name
is rarely mentioned, not because

Mark
Fleming

Photo
Editor

of shame, but because many

people simply do not understand
it. I thought I did a little, and I
was wrong. What, then, is Unincorporated Greenburgh? Where
do I live?
Unincorporated Greenburgh is
an amorphous region that makes
little to no sense. Part of it is even
called White Plains for mailing
purposes. But be sure not to confuse White Plains, Unincorporated
Greenburgh, with the City of White
Plains, a real city just down the
road.
Edgemont is a complex example
of a place in Greenburgh that does
not really exist. In case you meet
a UR student from Edgemont,
know this: Edgemont is only a
school district that covers part
of Unincorporated Greenburgh.
Further, Edgemont schools are in
Scarsdale, not Greenburgh.
With that said, let me add to my
mess: I attended the Ardsley Union
Free School District. So, to more
precisely answer the million-dollar
question, I live in the Hartsdale area

of Unincorporated Greenburgh,
in the Ardsley school district. My
classmates in the Ardsley school
system came mainly from Ardsley,
with substantial numbers from
Hartsdale, White Plains (Greenburgh) and Dobbs Ferry. I even had
some classmates from Scarsdale,
Hastings and Yonkers. Where I live,
we like to draw arbitrary lines that
complicate everything.
If I have not lost you already, get
ready for another layer of stupidity:
access to the Greenburgh town
pool. Since I live in Hartsdale, in
Unincorporated Greenburgh, I can
go to the town pool. My friends in
Ardsley, who live closer to the pool
than I do, cannot. Ardsleyans have
deplored this shameless display of
Greenburgh imperialism for years.
Though the Greenburgh town pool
is on one of Ardsleys main roads and
across the street from the Ardsley
Little League fields, it is off limits to
most Ardsleyans. Why? Because of a
serpentine line that makes its way
through backyards at random.
In conclusion, I live in Hartsdale, Unincorporated Greenburgh,
10530, in the Ardsley school district,
with access to the Greenburgh
town pool. You might ask yourself,
Why do I care? Thats a good
question.

Fleming is a member of

the class of 2010.

Krista Lombardo
Staff Illustrator