Call 911, not campus security
Your story about the anarchist being tossed off campus by campus security (Sept. 30) is an important reminder to all students that campus security is here solely to protect the property interests of the university. One should not be lulled into thinking that they have any kind of policing authority.
On Oct. 12 in the late evening, someone shot at my residence window with a pellet gun. In my angst, I mistakenly called campus security when really I should have dialed 911. I thought that campus security were rather like a first step in reporting a crime. Apparently not. Campus security’s responsibility in such an instance is simply to get the window replaced.
In fact, campus security does not report the incident to the police at all. I contacted the Saanich Police at the urging of an off-campus Victoria citizen and another student in my residence the next day. The police explained that I should have dialed 911 when the incident happened.
I have lived on campus for over two years. I have reported a couple of other incidents during that time to campus security that were criminal in nature, always believing that campus security was a first step in the follow-up of a crime. In fact, they are a dead end.
I am not complaining about campus security: they are “security guards.” That is, they are simply here to protect the property of the university and they do their job. My concern is that many of us are lulled into thinking that they are some sort of quasi-policing agency. The purpose of this letter is to remind students that when you see a crime or are a victim of a crime on campus, phone the Saanich Police.
Marsha Carew

Martlet runs Coors ad promoting sexism
In response to the Coors Light/Maxim ads (Oct. 7, 14): These ads are sexist, objectify women and perpetuate a rape culture. Suggesting women are edible, consumerable, and marketable products positions women as objects to be owned and possessed. Rape culture is promoted through the situating of women as sexually available beings within a space where alcohol consumption is encouraged and endorsed. Where is consent being addressed in this ad? Where is the reality of date rape being addressed in this ad? “You be the judge” explicitly states that men have agency and women do not. Women are to be chosen, and men have the power and privilege to choose.
It is inappropriate for a student newspaper to support and encourage these ads through widespread distribution. The argument could be made that it is important to show ads to encourage response and dialogue, but the reality is that as long as we promote sexist and oppressive advertising and media, that is what will continue to be reflected and perpetuated in our society.
Jen Cooper
UVSS Women’s Centre Coordinator

Asinine Coors ads
Not content to equate women with beer bottles, Coors went that extra step and compared the judging of women’s physical beauty to being a kid in a candy store. I didn’t think advertisers were stupid enough anymore to objectify 52 per cent of the beloved consuming public and to offend even more. Obviously I was wrong. To imply that Candy, Mandy, Brandy and Sandy could also be bought in such a store draws a dangerous connection to human trafficking, something I’m sure Coors wouldn’t publicly support but would reply to this argument with, “It’s just a joke! And it worked as an advertisement because here you are thinking of our product!”
Me: “It’s not funny! And if your intent was to make sure I never buy your product, then mission accomplished!”
To even begin discussing the repulsiveness of the actual “Search for the Coors Light Maxim Girl” would take up more space than this letter allows.
Thank you, Coors, for giving me one more reason not to drink your piss beer.
Tracey Coulter

Mandatory UVSS fees still a contentious issue
In response to Colin Bailey (Oct. 14), your value judgments were incorrect and presumptuous as to my UVSS-related activities. I did not consume any “amber jars” upon the eve of constructing my letter nor did I chase it with a piece of overpriced pizza from a UVSS establishment. Your assumptions are unsubstantiated, inaccurate and immature. I am proud of the fact that I have not set foot in the SUB this year except to take part in the tedious process of opting out of the health plan.
Bailey’s comparison of UVSS fees and federal income tax is invalid. The difference between federal taxation and coercive student union dues is so vast that even a first-year poli-sci student could comprehend the severity between tax evasion and questioning the totalitarian practices of the UVSS. The services provided by federal income tax are clearly more vital than services provided by the UVSS and certainly more important than sending members of the UVSS brass to partisan CFS meetings in Ottawa.
If you were indeed to withhold the minute portion of your income tax responsible for subsidizing my education (perhaps in order to purchase a framed picture of Karl Marx), I would gladly pay more in order to sleep at night knowing that you had nothing to do with the funding of my university education.
Jonathan Hughes

Time for change
In response to Katie Rollwagen’s Oct. 14 letter: Your claim that I believe student union fees should not be mandatory due to my alleged financial prosperity is false. I would like to clarify the fact that it is not my financial standing but my respect for liberty that determines my position. Mandatory fees are a product of a system in which the fiscal independence of every student is subject to control by a few. In further response to your assumption about my supposed socio-economic background, it is illogical for you to pass a value judgment against me when in fact I have never met you. At this point I would note that this past summer, I worked over 800 hours at my job (in order to finance school), which I travelled to on foot because I am not “independently wealthy” enough to afford a car.
If it is indeed logical, as you say, to pool our fees would you then go on to say that it is logical to send UVSS leadership to partisan CFS meetings at students’ expense? I certainly cannot see the logic in this statement.
I would now like to appeal to others of a like mind to speak out against the tyranny, corruption and blatant partisan support for the NDP by the UVSS/CFS. I believe the silent majority has stood by for too long—the time for change is now!
Michael Gismondi

Forget CFS fee—Remember our skyrocketing tuition
Is our campus Young Liberals/Gordon Campbell cheerleading squad really concerned about the small amount students pay each year as members of the Canadian Federation of Students? I don’t think so. I suspect their complaints are actually part of a larger campaign to silence the Canadian Federation of Students’ criticism of their party’s tuition fee hikes. And that is an unacceptable affront to democracy.
Mary Jane Richards

What criteria make a regime fascist?
Before Mr. Hanson’s call for a boycott of the United States as a solution for dealing with its “fascist Nazi regime” can be taken seriously (“It’s time to boycott America,” Oct. 14), have him come out and say that he supported the United Nations’ sanctions on Saddam Hussein’s Iraq, a truly fascist regime and regional aggressor.
It might also be helpful to compare the Nazi Holocaust to Camp Delta at Guantanamo Bay, where former inmates enthusiastically report eating better and getting healthier during their detention and wanting to immigrate to the United States after they leave.
Jon Hayes

Stupid profs deserve rude students
I read with interest the article “Rude students piss off profs, classmates at York” (Oct. 14). One professor said, “There are a lot of students who just look bored, tired and disinterested.” Another said that he had had a student who was a “dyed-in-the-wool note-passer.” I won’t defend rudeness, but it seems to me that university professors who misuse “disinterested” and “dyed-in-the-wool” deserve everything they get.
Gregory Rowe
Associate Professor
Dept. of Greek and Roman Studies

Einstein anti-fascist, not communist
Tim Boultbee’s article “Was Einstein a communist?” (Oct. 7) points out that Albert Einstein was a member of a committee that supported the Abraham Lincoln Brigade, the American contingent that fought for the elected republican government of Spain during that country’s civil war in 1936-9.
The story has a Canadian connection. Einstein also supported the Canadians who fought against fascism in Spain.
He was a sponsor of the Friends of the Mackenzie-Papineau Battalion Rehabilitation Fund, which gave assistance to Canadians who were wounded in Spain. Nor did he forget the Spanish people after General Francisco Franco came to power. He was a supporter of the Spanish Refugee Appeal of the Joint Anti-Fascist Refugee Committee in 1948-9.
So in response to the question raised in Boultbee’s article: Einstein likely was not a communist, but he certainly was an anti-fascist.
Larry Hannant
Dept. of History