Letters to the Editor
Issue date: 11/26/08 Last update: 12/3/08 at 10:36 PM PST
Section: OpEd
Laney "smoke free" campus?
Editor--The Peralta Board of Trustees passed the smoke free campus smoking policy so we could be a healthier learning environment for students and employees and we need to be in compliance. It will take the whole campus community to provide gentle reminders to smokers to not smoke on campus grounds. In the last two weeks on several occasions I have observed our Laney employees smoking on campus in violation of the posted signs that "Laney College is a Smoke Free Campus". On most of those occasions there were students passing who observed these violations of our policy. I have been very successful in using gentle reminders to get students that are smoking on campus to stop smoking or leave the campus until they finish smoking. Faculty, Staff, and Administrators need to help our Health and Safety Committee lead in this effort.
On a personal Note:
I understand how difficult it is to stop smoking. In 1975 I was ".smoking a pack a day". With the help of my family, a lot of friends and with great difficulty, I was able to quit smoking in 1978. My oldest son, who was not a smoker; but was a member of a group of students who were smokers, was diagnosed with cancer on his eighteenth birthday in 1987. He subsequently died from cancer at the age of twenty in 1989. Our students who don't smoke deserve the healthier learning environment stated in the Board Policy. PLEASE HELP!
James Menifee
Laney Health and Safety Committee
Pigeons in student center must go
Editor--Is it just me? Am I going insane? Does anyone else feel that the pigeons in the Student Center are a health hazard? The pigeons leave their droppings on the tables, floors and chairs, fly over our food, dropping over forty different types of parasites, and carrying viruses (bird flu), bacteria, mycotic (fugal), protozoal (such diseases as Malaria), and rickettsial (typhus fever, and other diseases transmitted by lice). It seems like I am the only one complaining, or who really cares that the pigeons, with all of the diseases that they carry are there.
Cryptococcus is a type of fungus that is found in the soil worldwide, usually in association with bird droppings.
Where are our student leaders, and the administration? Members of the administration and staff, ASLC, Phi Theta Kappa, Club Knowledge, the Asian and Latino clubs (did I leave anyone out?), all eat in the student center, and the student health service often set up a table in the center, yet no protest. In a learning institution that teaches Culinary Arts and Nutrition, I would assume that sanitation would be taught, and exercised. There have been, over the past few years, several articles in the Tower about the dirty tables and floor in the student center, which have mainly been ignored by the staff, responsible for the area, and the administration. With the now added problems of the pigeons, the situation is totally out of hand. They put up spikes in the student center, but the only solution is to get the pigeons out and adjust the doors to stay closed.
On November 17, 2008, I arrived at the Student Center at 7:05 am and there was (already) bird droppings on several tables, and was still on the tables when I left the campus at 1:30 pm. People were eating on the tables like the droppings were not there. What is even worse is that I have seen students hold the doors open to let the pigeons into the cafeteria area. Some people think that it is funny, but stop and think about the health hazards. I believe that anyone caught letting the pigeons in to the Center, should be penalized, and or expelled from school, for endangering the health of other people. Pigeons are the rats of the sky and transmit just as many diseases as rats spread.
Could it be that your health is already being affected, but you didn't associated it with the pigeons flying over your food? Why Have you not complained to the Vice President in charge of Student Services, or even to the President himself? The door to the Student Center can be adjusted to close all the way, and there should be a penalty for anyone caught letting the pigeons in. Sanitation must come first. There are thousands' of people health at stake here. For your own health and the health of your fellow student, speak up. Pigeons carry dangerous diseases.
Ellis J. Powell
Congrats Senator Obama
Editor--I wanted to congratulate Senator Barack Obama for winning the presidency on Nov. 4, even though as a registered Green, I voted for Cynthia McKinney. Maybe now, the sovereignty of American Indians will be respected instead of being disregarded in favor of states rights, oil and gas interests. Also, President-elect Obama might fill in vacancies of the Supreme Court if and when Ruth Ginsberg retires.
I hope that he would pick judges that will respect the sovereignty of American Indians and their way of life.
Billy Trice Jr.
Art Major
Editor--The Peralta Board of Trustees passed the smoke free campus smoking policy so we could be a healthier learning environment for students and employees and we need to be in compliance. It will take the whole campus community to provide gentle reminders to smokers to not smoke on campus grounds. In the last two weeks on several occasions I have observed our Laney employees smoking on campus in violation of the posted signs that "Laney College is a Smoke Free Campus". On most of those occasions there were students passing who observed these violations of our policy. I have been very successful in using gentle reminders to get students that are smoking on campus to stop smoking or leave the campus until they finish smoking. Faculty, Staff, and Administrators need to help our Health and Safety Committee lead in this effort.
On a personal Note:
I understand how difficult it is to stop smoking. In 1975 I was ".smoking a pack a day". With the help of my family, a lot of friends and with great difficulty, I was able to quit smoking in 1978. My oldest son, who was not a smoker; but was a member of a group of students who were smokers, was diagnosed with cancer on his eighteenth birthday in 1987. He subsequently died from cancer at the age of twenty in 1989. Our students who don't smoke deserve the healthier learning environment stated in the Board Policy. PLEASE HELP!
James Menifee
Laney Health and Safety Committee
Pigeons in student center must go
Editor--Is it just me? Am I going insane? Does anyone else feel that the pigeons in the Student Center are a health hazard? The pigeons leave their droppings on the tables, floors and chairs, fly over our food, dropping over forty different types of parasites, and carrying viruses (bird flu), bacteria, mycotic (fugal), protozoal (such diseases as Malaria), and rickettsial (typhus fever, and other diseases transmitted by lice). It seems like I am the only one complaining, or who really cares that the pigeons, with all of the diseases that they carry are there.
Cryptococcus is a type of fungus that is found in the soil worldwide, usually in association with bird droppings.
Where are our student leaders, and the administration? Members of the administration and staff, ASLC, Phi Theta Kappa, Club Knowledge, the Asian and Latino clubs (did I leave anyone out?), all eat in the student center, and the student health service often set up a table in the center, yet no protest. In a learning institution that teaches Culinary Arts and Nutrition, I would assume that sanitation would be taught, and exercised. There have been, over the past few years, several articles in the Tower about the dirty tables and floor in the student center, which have mainly been ignored by the staff, responsible for the area, and the administration. With the now added problems of the pigeons, the situation is totally out of hand. They put up spikes in the student center, but the only solution is to get the pigeons out and adjust the doors to stay closed.
On November 17, 2008, I arrived at the Student Center at 7:05 am and there was (already) bird droppings on several tables, and was still on the tables when I left the campus at 1:30 pm. People were eating on the tables like the droppings were not there. What is even worse is that I have seen students hold the doors open to let the pigeons into the cafeteria area. Some people think that it is funny, but stop and think about the health hazards. I believe that anyone caught letting the pigeons in to the Center, should be penalized, and or expelled from school, for endangering the health of other people. Pigeons are the rats of the sky and transmit just as many diseases as rats spread.
Could it be that your health is already being affected, but you didn't associated it with the pigeons flying over your food? Why Have you not complained to the Vice President in charge of Student Services, or even to the President himself? The door to the Student Center can be adjusted to close all the way, and there should be a penalty for anyone caught letting the pigeons in. Sanitation must come first. There are thousands' of people health at stake here. For your own health and the health of your fellow student, speak up. Pigeons carry dangerous diseases.
Ellis J. Powell
Congrats Senator Obama
Editor--I wanted to congratulate Senator Barack Obama for winning the presidency on Nov. 4, even though as a registered Green, I voted for Cynthia McKinney. Maybe now, the sovereignty of American Indians will be respected instead of being disregarded in favor of states rights, oil and gas interests. Also, President-elect Obama might fill in vacancies of the Supreme Court if and when Ruth Ginsberg retires.
I hope that he would pick judges that will respect the sovereignty of American Indians and their way of life.
Billy Trice Jr.
Art Major
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