RA is quite right, Peter. Whether or not you are kidding (I can never tell, which is why I love reading what you write), outsiders are not permitted to distribute material in the dorms. It makes many students uncomfortable, and it's really annoying to get endless Happy Wok menus under my door. Unknown entities (even if they do make delicious food) are a security concern for the people responsible for the space, and so we prefer that they not be there at all.

That said, I'd love to get my hands on a menu. Mr. Naderpoor is more than welcome to have students post menus on bulletin boards in dorms, or he can do it himself in non-residential buildings. He'll gain a lot more goodwill from the students by not burying them under unnecessary menus - resource boards are great for that. Either way, I'm excited to check out Aria and have been waiting with eager anticipation.

RA is quite right, Peter. Whether or not you are kidding (I can never tell, which is why I love reading what you write), outsiders are not permitted to distribute material in the dorms. It makes many students uncomfortable, and it's really annoying to get endless Happy Wok menus under my door. Unknown entities (even if they do make delicious food) are a security concern for the people responsible for the space, and so we prefer that they not be there at all.

That said, I'd love to get my hands on a menu. Mr. Naderpoor is more than welcome to have students post menus on bulletin boards in dorms, or he can do it himself in non-residential buildings. He'll gain a lot more goodwill from the students by not burying them under unnecessary menus - resource boards are great for that. Either way, I'm excited to check out Aria and have been waiting with eager anticipation.

RA is quite right, Peter. Whether or not you are kidding (I can never tell, which is why I love reading what you write), outsiders are not permitted to distribute material in the dorms. It makes many students uncomfortable, and it's really annoying to get endless Happy Wok menus under my door. Unknown entities (even if they do make delicious food) are a security concern for the people responsible for the space, and so we prefer that they not be there at all.

That said, I'd love to get my hands on a menu. Mr. Naderpoor is more than welcome to have students post menus on bulletin boards in dorms, or he can do it himself in non-residential buildings. He'll gain a lot more goodwill from the students by not burying them under unnecessary menus - resource boards are great for that. Either way, I'm excited to check out Aria and have been waiting with eager anticipation.

RA is quite right, Peter. Whether or not you are kidding (I can never tell, which is why I love reading what you write), outsiders are not permitted to distribute material in the dorms. It makes many students uncomfortable, and it's really annoying to get endless Happy Wok menus under my door. Unknown entities (even if they do make delicious food) are a security concern for the people responsible for the space, and so we prefer that they not be there at all.

That said, I'd love to get my hands on a menu. Mr. Naderpoor is more than welcome to have students post menus on bulletin boards in dorms, or he can do it himself in non-residential buildings. He'll gain a lot more goodwill from the students by not burying them under unnecessary menus - resource boards are great for that. Either way, I'm excited to check out Aria and have been waiting with eager anticipation.

RA is quite right, Peter. Whether or not you are kidding (I can never tell, which is why I love reading what you write), outsiders are not permitted to distribute material in the dorms. It makes many students uncomfortable, and it's really annoying to get endless Happy Wok menus under my door. Unknown entities (even if they do make delicious food) are a security concern for the people responsible for the space, and so we prefer that they not be there at all.

That said, I'd love to get my hands on a menu. Mr. Naderpoor is more than welcome to have students post menus on bulletin boards in dorms, or he can do it himself in non-residential buildings. He'll gain a lot more goodwill from the students by not burying them under unnecessary menus - resource boards are great for that. Either way, I'm excited to check out Aria and have been waiting with eager anticipation.

Many apologies for the over-posting. Spam was not intended. Please, please delete the extras. Sorry!

Re: people disappearing

Survivors of sexual assault that happened at Swat frequently feel that the administration encourages them not to file charges. This enables perpetrators to "disappear" and lets the college keep up appearances.

Mycroft - I don't disagree that the administration sometimes discourages survivors not to file charges. But no matter what a survivor does short of filing a police report and pressing charges, the student can still disappear with nary a blemish. A police report is a big deal, and can be very traumatic, so it's best approached with caution, but I'd hope that the administration would be supportive of either choice (and, really, it depends on which dean/administrator you talk to).

oh actually, it seems you dropped the ball on that one, I bet you're glad you post anonymously, even though you talk about specific people. Incorrectly. I mean seriously, you claimed Dennis wasn't there when you weren't sure about it? This makes me doubt the investigative work you did to show that "most students DON'T oppose funding for breaks". Did you run extensive polling on that, or did you make that up as well?

But Peter, you kind of belabor the point, as usual. It's kind of funny, but it's too long for really only one joke. Well, that and the mushroom pun, which was wonderfully bad.

Gosh darnit James, I sure did, and I sure am. No, I didn't do extensive polling on the question, but guess what? It doesn't matter! I'm not publishing a supposedly investigative column with no investigation done on my part at all. See the difference?

But let me humor you on that one. My claim about student opposition was based on ALL OF THE RESPONSES to the column, of maybe one or two which explicitly opposed funding for seminar breaks. And Dennis, I would refer you to this paragraph in your column which not only states that it's "inevitable" students will disagree with the proposal, and ADMIT you have no idea why that might be, but still go on and invent straw men to knock down:

"Inevitably, students will disagree with the idea of setting aside money to help pay for seminar breaks. While we cannot predict exactly what arguments will be used, we imagine people will feel that providing snacks in class is not the College’s or Student Council’s responsibility, or else that the fund is a nice idea, but is too easily abused, or won’t be taken advantage of. We imagine that these students are not the same students who have to ask themselves if they can really afford to bring snacks to class when it is their turn to do so. If this is the case, would it be fair to say that their class background has influenced their opinion on this Student Council policy matter?"

Okay, touche actually, but in honesty is "Biting the hand" really an investigative column? I'm not saying it shouldn't be, but so far it has seems very much like an opinion piece, trying to draw out discussion instead of presenting researched facts. You know, kind of like Glenn Beck. Now, you're right, I don't quite hold your ad hominem character attacks in DG comments to the rigorous code of journalistic ethics as Ben and Dennis's column, but seriously, your charge was hypocrisy, maybe you should cover your bases better.

Also, lulz, I think I just accidentally equivocated Glenn Beck to Maureen Dowd and Thomas Friedman.

I totally agree-- a column is *not* a place for investigative journalism. But the whole "Biting the Hand" manifesto was all about how they were going to do the kind of investigative journalism that Swat's standing media is not capable of. If their goal was simply to say "hey, here are some thoughts on our understanding of some stuff to the best of our ability," I don't think they would've pissed people off. But by claiming that Swat's reporters suck, and that they were going to do better, they set a pretty high bar for themselves. And then didn't cross it.

And my charge of hypocrisy was perhaps a bit facile, and I didn't realize that they were present. But that wasn't the point of my comment. The bulk of my charge was actually in response to "wake up petey" who asked what was "so snicker-worthy" about their column, and if it was just because they attacked a large group? And my response is that it's not because they critiqued the powers that be that Peter is mocking them. He's mocking them because, as I stated, they set up an outrageously high bar to cross, and then failed to meet it, while self-congratulating the whole way.

Okay, here's how I interpret what has happened:
1. Peter wrote THE WORST COLUMN about kick coke.
2. Ben and Dennis wrote THE BITCHIEST COLUMN in response not to just Peter, but to all of Swat journalists, basically calling them all useless.
3. We, the RAVENOUS LUNATICS that comment on the DG... well, we didn't rant and rave, we asked for more decorum and hoped they would write about issues that mattered to us.
4. "We know that most students don't oppose funding for seminar breaks. That's why we wrote an article about it. We wanted to open up discussion by deliberately picking a topic that wasn't very controversial." aka THE FLUFFY COLUMN which was, at least for the DG, their first attempt at writing a constructive piece. it sparked, against all odds and reason, a THOUGHTFUL DISCUSSION, in spite of their use of a TERRIBLE STRAW MEN ARGUMENT, which no one in journalism ever uses ever!
5. Peter, after making the BEST MUSIC VIDEO EVER, wrote another column, that while it wasn't the WORST COLUMN, was still pretty mean spirited, with a pretty low funny to asshole quotient. Still, Ben and Dennis were pretty big jerks in the BITCHIEST COLUMN, so it's hard to get that riled up.

So, from there I see two options: eviscerate Ben and Dennis for actually trying to spark discussions, or maybe tone it down a little and see where they go with this. Maybe next time it will be a little less inane than a seminar break fund. (and who knows, maybe next time there will be some investigative journalism)

Oh, and facile? Dude, where's my Merriam Webster when I need it.

And on Saturday night, there's the chorus concert and the Vertigo-Go alumni show!!

Have either of these slums returned to campus since? They seem like very insightful and interesting individuals.

*alums