Letters to the Editor

USF parking problem noticed by others

Those who read the Tampa Tribune saw that on Monday USF made the front page. It wasn’t for our amazing football game performance on Saturday, but for the amazing parking issue we have. It’s good to know that someone else around here is noticing the parking problem. The title of the article explains it all, “You Do The Math: 41,236 USF Students, 17,365 Parking Spaces.” It explained the troubles we all have. Coming onto campus, the first thought that comes to your mind is finding a spot, hopefully in the vicinity of your class, and then trying to make it to your class on time. Those who are impatient or just get frustrated and park wherever they can pray through their whole class that they don’t get a big, fat parking ticket at the end of class. Even at the residence halls there is a parking problem. At Fontana Hall they gave out too many parking permits so students have to park in the aisles or along the back fence. Because of this, there have been more accidents in the parking lot. It is great that USF is a growing research university, the third largest in the state, but with a growing student body comes the need for more parking spaces.

Katherine Sabol is a freshman majoring in secondary education.


MoBull advertising is a good thing

I believe that when any individual opens the door to one of the campus newspaper boxes, turns on their television set, or listens to their favorite radio station, they will also “automatically receive messages tied to a commercial interest.” MoBull Messenger essentially asks your permission to send you messages when you are signing up. The subscriber selects which information they want to receive, when they want it and how many they want. The beauty of MoBull is that you can opt out of any message choice, commercial or otherwise. There are many USF channels that assist students, faculty and staff to build a connected USF community. For example, there is the Campus Events Channel, the Greek Life Channel, the USF Deadline News Channel, the USF Financial Aid Channel and the Resident Services Channel. We are now developing a way to link class notifications/cancellations to the MoBull system, which is tentatively going to go live Spring ’04. The relevant question is whether any student is “embarrassed or disgusted” by free food, two-for-ones and the myriad of special offers and exclusive student discounts from the merchants in our area.

Michele Joel is the USF IT marketing manager.


One does notrepresent all
RE: “A democracy built on discrimination” Oct. 7, 2003

Muslims are constantly defending themselves in all aspects of life. We have to defend the way we dress, what we say, and most importantly, how we act. It seems to be that one Muslim represents the entire religion. One person says they hate right? Wrong. One Muslim does not represent the rest. Sorry to burst your bubble, but we don’t all think with the same brain. Have you ever stopped to think why that Palestinian might hate that Israeli? How do you think you’d feel if your land was constantly being destroyed and your family was being wiped out at astronomical rates? Have you ever stopped to think about why that Muslim said they hate Americans? Have you ever watched as someone bombed homes of Muslims (men, women and children) looking for “weapons of mass destruction”? Have you ever had your school threatened with bombs? Have you ever heard people say things like, “They deserve it, they don’t like us?” Have you ever had an extremely uneducated individual say something like “Bin Laden, you’re in America, take that thing off your head.” Have you ever been to a bank and had someone yell out the window, “Go home?” Where exactly would my home be?

Now that you’ve put yourself in someone else’s shoes, how do you feel? Do you want to wave the flag of a country whose “war on terror” has made it almost impossible for one to be Muslim in the U.S.?

Next time you decide to generalize an entire population based on the opinion of one, think again. Why don’t you step out of your little plastic bubble (go ahead, don’t be afraid) and ask a few questions. Don’t live the rest of your life ignorant and misinformed, go talk to some Muslim people. You might learn something new. Muslims, as a majority are very peaceful people with extreme amounts of patience and they are always willing to answer questions.

I would like to end by saying my opinion is based on the actions of the ignorant few. I would also like to say that I don’t speak for anyone but me (not USF, Muslims, women, or any other group you try to put me in).

Allegra Coleman is a junior majoring in English.