Letters to the Editor

USG president declines columnist's suggestion

for a USG rainy day fund

Bryan Carroll's piece ("USG 'Rainy Day Fund' could help curb budget cuts' impact," Feb. 18) contained a large number of disturbing errors, some of which may have damaged the reputation of the Undergraduate Student Government. We would like to take this opportunity to set the record straight regarding some of the inaccuracies printed in Carroll's piece, and also speak to other factual errors that have been repeated in this paper throughout the past few years:

- The term "surplus funds" is misleading. It doesn't mean that USG squirreled away money in order to buy BlackBerry phones (which we never ended up buying) or a brand-new Playstation (which, if it were in the office, would give us something better to do than write this letter to the editor). When USG has surplus funds, it means that whatever projects we budgeted for this year didn't cost as much as we thought they would.

Getting a better deal than you budgeted for is a good thing. It's like planning to spend $30 on jeans and finding those same jeans on sale for $20. Do you say "Curses! Now I have $10 left over. How awful!"? No, of course not. Neither does USG. What USG does do is gather all the surplus money at the end of every year and then redistribute it.

This "redistribution" still unfortunately does not include the purchase of executive-style leather couches or BlackBerry phones (that's right, still no BlackBerrys!).

This year we had $51,000 in surplus funds. We redistributed these funds to the following sources: major student activity initiatives, including Take Back the Night, HuskyTHON, Remember Last Night and other Spring Weekend-related efforts; funding board efforts to help fund student organizations (this is particularly important as there has been an unprecedented number of funding requests by student organizations this year); kick-starting USG-SPAN television programming, which will be recording a variety of on-campus lectures, performances and club sports for students to be able to view online.

- A "rainy day fund" is a bad idea. It would turn USG funding into a sort of Social Security trust, where funds you put into the system might not ever actually be used on you. By the way, in case you don't already know, you're never going to see a social security paycheck. Sorry.

- The truth about the BlackBerrys: they were never purchased for USG members. We were going to. Seriously. But then we decided that spending student funds on something that might actually make USG more productive was just lame. Don't you agree?

- USG has not asked for a fee increase. Nor does USG get to keep any of the student fee money. All we do is disperse it to organizations (everything from Club Sports to the Math Club) and spend it on events (like, you know, Student Appreciation Day or the Spring Weekend Rally) so that UConn students have opportunities to have a fun, productive college experience.

- Ryan McHardy never had a phone interview with Bryan Carroll. He actually just made that up. They did swap some e-mails four months ago when Carroll was still a part of USG, but that's about it. However, we at USG do believe that this sort of shoddy journalism should be a great start for Carroll's future at many choice publications, including (but obviously not limited to): Star, The National Enquirer and, of course, the Stall Street News.

OK, but on a serious note - we at USG do appreciate The Daily Campus and its efforts to bring important issues to the attention of the student body. Of course, we wish that they had fact-checked a few of these important issues before going to print, but hey, no one's perfect, right?

- Meredith Zaritheny

USG President

Swipe-a-meal only the first step against hunger

In this economic downturn many people are seeking assistance. The problems of hunger and homelessness are on the rise. Soup kitchens are seeing an increase of 30 percent in the number of people seeking assistance and an increase of 13 percent in the number of people who are homeless.

Here at UConn, UConnPIRG's Hunger and Homelessness campaign is striving to ameliorate these rising problems.

With the help of UConn students and UConn Dining Services, UConnPIRG raised a total of $12,847.50 in only three hours through the Swipe-A-Meal program. We at UConnPIRG would like to thank all those in the student body who donated their flex passes. You made this a highly successful endeavor, raising $1,200 more than last spring's fundraiser.

This money is being divided between TriTown Shelter, No Freeze Shelter, and the National Student Campaign Against Hunger and Homelessness.

Though this was a great step, it only treats the symptoms of the disease that is Hunger and Homelessness. To cure this illness, we need the state to step in and step up. Governmental action is absolutely necessary. Taking the lead, President Obama signed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, which allots $1.5 billion to homelessness prevention. The next step is for the state of Connecticut to invest in supportive housing programs and the like. I truly hope that our government can address the plight of its citizens in the economic downturn.

- Kaitlyn Schlegel

Spokeswoman, UConnPIRG

Hunger and Homelessness campaign

8th-semester sociology major

Cutting funds for

condoms leaves

students' health at risk

I was outraged by the op-ed ("Cold prevention more important than condoms," Feb. 13) that advocated cutting UConn's budget for condoms, while proposing more funding for tissues and anti-bacterial lotion. While it is true that five times as many people are infected with the common cold than with STIs (STDs are now being called sexually transmitted infections), this does not automatically mean that common cold preventive measures are more needed than condoms are on UConn's campus.

First of all, the numbers given are not representative of the UConn campus, but rather of the population at large. The needs of a college campus are not necessarily the same as the needs of a whole population. College students are going to be more sexually active than the population as a whole.

What this op-ed failed to address was the difference in the short-term and long-term effects of STIs versus common colds. Common colds usually last about a week or two, but STIs are with people for a lifetime. While the symptoms of STIs can be treated, the infection is going to stay with the person forever, and that is going to affect that person's life as far as future sexual partners are concerned.

In our society, STIs are taboo and having one can be a humiliating experience, not to mention that some STIs are life-threatening. You don't often hear about people dying from the common cold.

The author claims that "giving away condoms promotes irresponsible sexual behavior;" this is absurd. People who have protected sex have to choose to go and get a condom and then use it; that sounds like responsible behavior to me. There are still people who choose to have unprotected sex, even when condoms are available; now that's being irresponsible.

The bottom line is that people get colds, and that's a natural process. It helps build up the immune system for the future. But, getting an STI is not something that just goes away after a week; it lasts a lifetime, and UConn is wise to be spending money to help give students the option of being responsible and safe so they can protect themselves.

- Jessica Hughes

6th-semester biology major