Our Readers’ Voice

If New York city is smoke-free, why aren’t we?

I am a senior at CMU and have been experiencing the night life CMU has to offer for the past three years.

Now don’t get me wrong, I truly enjoy going out with friends to the local hot spots to grab a bite to eat or a few drinks. But there is a problem I have.

The bars and restaurants are filled with smoke and are endangering all those who attend them.

I, like many other students, would like to be able to go out to eat with my parents when they come and visit without having to inhale smoke the entire time we are eating and catching up.

It would be great for families celebrating during graduation to be able to attend smoke-free restaurants.

I also know I would love to be able to come home from The Bird or Blackstone, not to single them out, and not have to immediately shower so that my sheets don’t smell.

Being a health fitness major at CMU, I have been made very aware of the dangers of smoking, and I do feel I have the right to tell people they shouldn’t smoke. Whether they listen or not is up to them, but when my own health is compromised while trying to be a social college student, I start to get worried.

Exposure to second-hand smoke can be just as dangerous as smoking itself. Second-hand smoke can lead to respiratory and cardiac problems. With heart disease being the number one cause of death in both men and women, eliminating the smoke-filled atmospheres could be one step in trying to make a change.

If government health departments from all levels, local to national, are trying to make people more aware of the dangers of smoking, then an important step would be to make bars and restaurants smoke-free.

New York City, for example, is smoke-free. Now, if New York City can do it, why can’t we?

Jeff Robinson
Fruitport senior

Football student section growing

In order to be a highly-touted national football program, the CMU Athletic Department needs to aspire for superiority in all aspects of its program – everything from the stadium, the tailgate, the athletic facilities, the level of playing ability and, of course, the student section. As portrayed in many of the improvements within Kelly/Shorts Stadium, the Athletic Department has definitely done much more than just aspire for superiority in all of their aspects. It has, in fact, accomplished many of those aspirations.

In recent years, the student section has been the aspect which has been lagging.

With that being said, the student body of Central Michigan University needs to be commended for their behavior and intensity during ALL four quarters of CMU’s home opening football game, against Eastern Illinois.

As a large ambassador of our university, the student section is one of the only non-athletic representations of our university that visiting fans, players, coaches and administrators will carry home with them after traveling to CMU.

Not so often in this publication, but on a much larger scale (faculty, staff, local residents), the students of CMU have been labeled more as “tailgating fans,” as opposed to CMU football fans.

This is no longer the case in Mount Pleasant. Just as the culture of CMU football and athletics has evolved into a “championship culture” during the last two years, the student body and student section have evolved their support of CMU football into being a “championship student body.”

Gone are the days of empty seats behind the south end-zone during the third and fourth quarters. This university and its student body are more fired up about CMU football than I have ever seen in my three years in Mount Pleasant, appearing now to be buying into the “championship culture” that has already been instilled within the Athletic Department.

If you missed out on the home opener against Eastern Illinois, don’t miss out on history being made before your eyes. Championship dynasties are only around for so long, and shouldn’t be taken for granted. The student body at Thursday’s game can all tell you that. Fire Up Chips!

Dan Heck
Big Rapids senior

Anxiety over faculty contracts

As an eight-year CMU faculty member and as someone who recently saw his monthly “budget” heating payment go up more than 50 percent, I’ve been anxious about the faculty contract situation. But I wasn’t really mad until reading Friday’s CM Life.

Two articles put the university’s mixed-up priorities in stark relief: On the cover, you report on the faculty rally for a fair contract. And then on page three, you report that this university spent $165,000 on new gutters for Warriner Hall. What is going on here? This is on top of the facts that funding for the Charles V. Park Library and for faculty to travel to conferences has been cut, but new flat screen TVs have been installed throughout the Student Activity Center.

I ask again: What is going on here? What has happened to CMU’s priorities? Fancy gutters and TVs are terrific, but are they more important than reducing class sizes, keeping talented and dedicated faculty here at CMU, paying them a wage that prevents them from falling behind as costs on everything keep going up, and supporting teaching and research?

It’s clearly time to get the CMU “2010 Vision Plan” back in focus!

Jeffrey Weinstock
Associate professor of English