Dear Editor,
It is with some disgust that I noted the recent editorial on issues concerning a perceived lack of confidentiality at the Student Health Center. Your choice of title “Center Should Honor Confidentiality” and accompanying editorial cartoon, imply that the staff of the Student Health Center do not take the issue of medical confidentiality seriously. Your choice of an editorial rather than a story means that you could take hearsay and innuendo and play them up as “facts” for your audience, many who do not know the difference in format.
If you truly wished to affect change in a perceived problem, you could have done a legitimate news story, interviewed some of the staff and administrators involved and quoted students anonymously in a factual manner. Your use of the quote, “Oh, you’re not pregnant!” was not placed in any context, and could have been interpreted in any manner of ways. The efforts of the nurse to be friendly was turned into a “revealing” conversation on who had been to the Health Center.
This is not to say that there may not be procedural issues that need to be resolved. Some of your points were valid. However, my overall impression was one of an attempt to sensationalize a minor issue that could have been better dealt with in a more professional manner. And if even one student takes your opinion as factual and fails to seek medical attention because of fears that you have raised, then the shame certainly is on you, is it not?
Paul Alvarez
Associate Professor of Physical Education
Dear Editor,
For the last several weeks, the media has bombarded the American public with notions that Robert Dole is getting desperate and his chances of winning the election are slipping away. Despite negative suggestions, Robert Dole came out last Sunday and demonstrated why he’s the Republican nominee for president. He was sincere, witty, confident and passionate in his views. He was himself. Yet the Bob Dole we saw on Sunday seemed different. But was this really a different Dole? Whether you feel Dole won or lost the debates, let us agree that Dole far exceeded the showing that many expected. Perhaps this is because he spent countless hours preparing. I cannot believe that Dole can disappear for a few days and then suddenly reappear as a completely different person. I must ask how Bob Dole seems so different in the presidential debates? Well, a practical assertion would be that Dole is no different today than he was when he first started his campaign. Perhaps what we saw this past weekend was the real Bob Dole. I don’t think it’s that big of a stretch to suggest the media’s portrayal of Dole was jaded. In fact, I believe it’s because of this ill perception that many were surprised that he came out and challenged Clinton with such confidence. Bob Dole reminded all of us that we have to be more careful as to what we take for truth and fact. We need to be just as selective in listening as they are in reporting.
Danny Rinaldelli
Junior
Paul Alvarez
