Page 2 February 18, 1987 PPP Pee ee eee ee ee Pe a eS ee i OY. Other Press —Other Editorials—1g pone Other ea Douglas College’s Autonomous Student Newspaper The — Orher Press The Other Press is a dem- tically tun, autonomous : _ Rewspaper serving las College since 1976. shes 16 times a seme- ¢ a week, under the ices” of The Other Publi- ‘S ‘Society. Our funding s by way of a direct stu- levy paid at registration and through focal and natio- |mal advertising. The Other Press is a member of the ‘Canadian University Press and subscribes to it’s. state- ment of principles. ~ OPS Board of Directors Vacant | Vacant Vacant ‘ Joho McDonald Kirstin Shaw. Jeane Wh Rob Hancock - “John ee ordinator: : : ‘ Co MeDonatd tal Coordinator: : Colin Turkingdon ainment Co-ordinators: 3 “Jeff House Kirstin Shaw es. Co-ordinator: : S = Vacant. ds Co-ordinator: Vacant Co-ordinator: Veronica Blok. jecruitment Co-ordinator: Karen: Dhillon ics Co-ordinator: Chris Brown tographic Co-ordinator: Rachael Smith John McDonald Lori Donald Chris Brown Veronica Block Rachael Smith Colin Tarkington Kirstin Shaw OP not biased It appears that our last couple of issues have raised a little bit of crit- icism from students. The focus of this criticism being our alleged bi- ased reporting on the conduct of ex- president of the DCSS, Scott Nelson. We have been accused of trying to “go out and get him’. It seems that we have created the impression that we were “gunning” for him at a per- sonal level. Which is totally not true. We were reporting what app- eared to be the truth. Certainly as in all stories that we publish there are 3 basic catagories that people who read the Other Press fall into. The first is the group that agrees with the story; the way that the facts are represented and the conclusions that they draw from the story. The second group totally disagrees with the story. They are the people who usually have an interest in how the student populace will react to the story. Whether their interest may be linked to the chance of either per- sonal or material loss, or perchance both, who knows? The last group doesn’t give a damn. This is the group that we at the Other Press are trying to reach. Letter to the Editor: This open letter is in response to the letter written by Ms. Fran Lurie in last week’s Other Press, a copy of which: was pushed under my of- fice door. I would like to answer your letter point by point. Firstly, we never have or will ad- vertise women’s athletics as “slow and sleasy”. The poster read “Aerobic Classes” NOT women’s athletics and, in fact, we have never discriminated between men’s and women’s athletics, our advertising and posters appear under the term “Athletics”. Secondly, it is rather sexist of you to suggest that aerobic classes are for women only. In fact, all of our classes are co-ed in nature, and are attended by both sexes. Thirdly, you assume that this class is for people with “low back problems” which is not so. It is a slow and easy (hence “sleasy”) class for those people who do not wish the high energy level of regu- lar aerobics (also included on the poster). Fourthly, there is no such word as “sleasy” in the dictionary. Fifthly, the definition of the word “sleazy” in_ the dictionary has. absolutely no correlation with “slow sexual movement”, in fact my dictionary defines it as “lacking firmness of texture, poorly made, Unfortunately, the most vocal group in replying to our stories about Scott Nelson is the second group lis- ted above. You have probably guessed by now that the most quiet group is the last one listed above. We expect this to happen, but it sure would be nice to hear more from them. One complaint about the Other Press is our apparent negative atti- tude towards the DCSS. One thing people tend to forget is that some- times, some people of the DCSS ex- press a negative attitude towards the OP. We at the Other Press do not let this bother us for two basic reasons. One being that we do not hate or even mildly dislike the DCSS. The other being, as an autonomous newspaper we have no outside influ- ence from either the DCSS or the adminstration. So we have no pre- determined or biased opinion. Ex- cept the responsibility to inform the students the goings-on at the col- lege, good or bad. In closing I would like to say that in all out stories we never attacked Scott Nelson on a personal level. We simply just reported the actions of the ex-DCSS president. Nothing more, nothing else. SIGMA W. cheap, shoddy and run-down”. To those faculty staff and stu- dents who participate in the noon- hour “slow and sleasy classes”, I apologize for calling you cheap, shoddy and run-down, male or female. If the word sleasy insults you, I would suggest that it is your prob- lem, but my intention in offering such a class was to promote a low- er level of physical activity for any- one in the college or outside the college, and never for one moment gave any thought that the people taking part would be enjoying “slow sexual pleasure” or for that matter, that women would attend the class and keep fit “simply for male pleasure’’. Lastly, I have to add that letters like yours to the press, with pho- tocopies pushed under my office door do not allow me to answer you personally, either verbally or in writing other than through this public forum. I would also suggest that your narrow-minded mis- interpretation of that poster does very little for the cause you are promoting, but at the same time I apologize if I offended you per- sonally. Sincerely, Chris Johnson P.S. I would love-to give you a free pass to the class whenever you like. the Other Press. University Press statement of principles. Disclaimer: the opinions expressed herein do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Letters may be edited for brevity and clarity and to subscribe to the Canadian atypical, modern, North America hypothehcal srtuation : H. hypothehcal srtuation : Ha reo have he beer received by As meee Abert Enst gs a selene, kong Like, whet a loser! seen a such a waste of student funds. How many students read your paper? You are producing the paper on a weekly basis and there ‘is little qualitative material in it to justify this. How manythousands of issues do you produce? I see them stacked in piles around the college, the majority ending up in the trash bins. Your Feb. 11th issue was blurry and difficult to read; the vast majority of the comics are tasteless and lack humour; the advertisments take up a _ majority of space and are simply repeated from week to week. The issues are “free” but they are costing stu- dents money in increased registra- tion costs. Why not publish some dollar figures and ask the student population if they feel a weekly paper is worth it. Survey your R. Retwnsen/87 readers and find out how many Dear Editor: students read (and more im- portantly - enjoy) the weekly “You Want Letters” - Well...We paper. I feel your money and want a decent paper. | have never efforts would be better spent producing a quality monthly paper that deals with a variety of issues - the last several issues have been focussed around Scott Nelson. I don’t mean to sound totally nega- tive about your paper but I wonder how many other students feel the same as me. Thanks for listening J.R. D.S. P.L. T.K. D.E Editor's note: If you want to know what's really going on with the Other Press rather than making in- accurate, opinionated statements that your afraid to sign you name to, come to the Other Publications Society AGM on March 12, 1986. To the Editor: In the Feb. 11th editorial section of the Other Press were several let- ters which focused on the contro- versial SGM on Feb. Sth; where Scott Nelson was impeached. One well-written letter on the bottom (of Pg. 2), caught my attention. It was addressed “to everyone” and signed “Anonymous”. Any _ news- paper with any integrity does not print letters that are not signed. There is a difference between hay- ing your name withheld and _ re- fusing to sign your name/identity. If I can sign my name next to my beliefs, why shouldn’t “Anony- mous” sign his or her name? Is it due to a fear of being labelled or identified by those who may object to your point of view? Leading to my next point....in the Other Press on January 21, a letter I wrote concerning the Athletics levy was printed. For all of you who may have assumed otherwise, I did not say I “be- grudge” the athletic students, | simply stated my opposition of paying extra ($$) for a department and equipment I never use. More- over, just because I do not agree with the views of the majority, does not mean | am a “radical” or that I am “nasty”, negative and “narrow-minded”. I hope in the future all. students will have the courage to express their views openly, without being condemned. Sarah Tessaro Way to go Petra! The Athletic Levy has caused a great stir at Douglas College and the name Petra Bangemann has become a popular one. She represents all of the Douglas Col- lege students who are opposed to this levy. I don’t know Petra personally but I’ve heard her speak and she seems to be one intellegent and tough lady who gets her point across! Myself and a lot of my friends are against this levy idea and are glad that we have someone like Petra Bangemann_represent- ing us on the Senate. I myself am barely getting through on a stu- dent loan and the extra 5 bucks next semester does make a differ- ence since I’m at Douglas for an education and not for “recrea- tion”. Petra doesn’t look like she’s got it hard financially, but if she does, she sure has a good disguise with the classy way she presents herself - which tells me and many others that she has compassion for the ‘- less fortunate” student. With all the talk that other similar levies could be set as well, many of us are doomed. Petra has taken action and thank goodness for that. The Arts & Humanities students are 100% behind her, and when she presents those petitions with all those names opposed to it at the next (college) board meeting, we’ll see if those important people who run the college care about what the students really want! Petra Bange- mann, may the force be with you (you’ve got it already), you’ve got lots of support from the “real” stu- dents who want “real” education. Thanks for caring. Rick T. (concerned student)