Uncensored, Unedited, Strongly Opinionated Editorials

    Who is the group of common everyday students with little to no experience in computers wearing red/orange vests? People who the library hired because they showed interest or they were on work-study. The workers in the library LINC often tell people the wrong thing to do, and sometimes they just stare at you blankly. It seems like that being one of the biggest labs on campus would make the LINC only hire people with a strong background in computers, but this is not the case. The people working in the library are often guessing when they tell you what to do, and when you have a problem they often blame it on your diskette or some other department. Sometimes you even have to wait for them to ask several different workers before you get an answer that doesn?t really help. You are better off asking the person next to you.

    Not only do you have to worry about getting the correct help, if you are lucky enough to find a computer in the library, you then have to worry about the computer working. The computers in the library aren?t too reliable; the line printers at the end take forever and tend to forget about some documents printed. If you print a laser document, make sure it is right, there seems to be no remorse for mistakes. The software is often outdated or has errors, and there has been a rash of viruses floating around in the library within the last couple of semesters.

    What is SFA saying about its technology when the library lab is in such sorry shape? It seems to me that they are saying they don?t care that most of the students use the library computer lab as a last resort, relying on some of the more dependable labs on campus. When people take a tour of the campus, the guide will be sure to point out the size of the library computer lab, but maybe they should let them sit down and experience the sorry service.

Today I heard a story that totally disturbed me. It involved a young man, his pursuit of an attractive young lady, and the ultimate humiliation and embarrassment of rejection. This story literally broke my heart?

J.J., a young attractive Hispanic sophomore at Princeton, decided one day to talk to his dream girl in Physics class. Some might say that this is no big deal, but for a shy, self-conscience man like J.J., this was do or die. He had not been attracted this strongly to a girl since high school. Back then his heart broke when his dream girl viciously responded "HELL NO" for dinner and a movie. Yet this time J.J. felt that this girl would indeed say yes in a second.

J.J. had met her the semester before at a drunken bash. They exchanged names, flirted with each other all night, and both left that party knowing they had just made a new friend, so J.J. thought. He never saw her again that semester. He searched high and low for her, but all he had to go on was her looks, for in his drunken state, he forgot her name.

When J.J. saw her walk into the oversized lecture hall for Physics class, his heart nearly popped out of his chest. Her long blonde hair flowed evenly and perfectly down her graceful neck and back. Her beautiful eyes and shiny smile fully complemented her creamy flesh. He couldn?t stop staring at her perfectly tanned, toned, silky smooth legs. J.J. threw her a quick shy smile but to no avail. Either she did not notice him or she pretended not to see him for the sake of her friends. Yet J.J. thought on the positive side and prayed that the answer was she did not see him. He paid no attention to the nicely stitched red letters on her loosely worn yellow T-shirt. The weird X and crazy looking O meant nothing to J.J. For all he knew the symbols could have been the logo for a new restaurant opening in town.

The day J.J. decided to talk to her, he made himself look his best. He wore his nicest alligator logo pullover, his coolest khaki cargo pants, and threw on his cleanest Princeton Lacrosse hat, which he sported backwards. He arrived at the lecture hall early, waiting for her t o gracefully stroll in towards her seat. When J.J. noticed her climb the stairs to her seat, his heart rapidly pounded and his palms started to sweat. He casually sniffed his underarms for the scent of lingering sweat, thankfully smelling deodorant. As he nervously walked towards her, flashbacks of high school entered his mind. He quickly dismissed these evil memories and optimistically reminded himself that was then and this is now. He neared close to her, all the while expecting the best. Thoughts of happiness, joy, excitement, love, and sex dashed through his mind, exiting as he came face to face with HER.

J.J. calmly reintroduced himself, relearning her elegant name. He casually took the seat next to her, all the while making small talk. He asked how her summer went and how hard her classes seemed. She kindly answered his nervous questions, all the while confused as to the point of the conversation.

J.J. did not notice the confused and perplexed look on her face as he continued with his nervous rambling. As he finally came to the point, he took a deep breath and blurted out his invite to dinner and a movie. She blankly stared at him, gave him a bland smile, and bluntly replied,

"No. I cannot date you J.J. because you are not in a fraternity and I only date fraternity guys."

I know that some sorority girls will deny that this practice exists. Yet if one takes a look at the sorority girls on this campus, they see that their boyfriends are indeed in fraternities. It bothers me that an average guy has no shot at a gorgeous sorority girl unless he too is sporting Greek letters. It seems to me that this is not merely a practice of sorority girls, but a case of group discrimination. Us non-fraternity members are not given a chance to show a sorority girl that we too can be as cool as fraternity guys can. This to me is the Ultimate Rejection.

For questions or comments about this article, e-mail me at: WOODY1369@YAHOO.COM

The University Police Department is one of three sets of police officers that patrol Nacogdoches, including the Nacogdoches Police and the State Troopers. SFA is a pretty good-sized college, with around 12,000 students this year, but do we really need as many UPD as we have? The students have enough problems without having to worry about getting a puny little ticket, or getting harassed by the UPD.

A lot of people say that it is a safety thing, and that having so many police makes the campus safer, but most of the inner campus is unreachable by UPD patrol cars. Several female students complain that the UPD escorts take forever to show up, and in some cases the escorts have only shown up after two or three repeated calls or haven?t shown up at all. The UPD says having a bike patrol is too expensive, and that the police carry a lot of equipment that can?t be carried on bikes, but what about all that money they get from tickets and putting boots on peoples cars?

With the parking problem that SFA has, the low amount of crime SFA has, and the extremely small size of the campus, you think the ticket writers who work for UPD would give the students a break. It seems, however, that the ticket writers have some kind of competition on how many tickets they can write. It doesn?t matter if you park in the wrong place for five minutes or one hour; chances are you are going to get a ticket. If they change the rules and you don?t know and get a ticket, you are just out of luck.

All that I am saying is that UPD needs to lay off of the students. We are here to learn, not to pay fines or parking tickets. We pay enough just to go to college, without the UPD adding fines for their entertainment.

Have you ever REALLY taken a look at your bill? Not only do we pay to go to this school, we also pay fees on top of more fees. If you live on campus, pay close attention to what you are getting charged. Everyone should look at every bill, because computer glitches have been know to cause multiple charges of fees on people?s bills.

Let?s take a look at the fees on an average student living on campus? bill. Keep in mind that most of these fees are charged per semester, so you actually pay them twice a year. First, you have a course fee. The average charge for this is about $30. I don?t see why you would be charged a course fee, since you pay for courses and you come to college to take courses, so if you didn?t take courses you wouldn?t be charged a fee and you wouldn?t be in college (geesh).

Next you have a computer use fee, which is about $90. Now a good percent of students (about 40% according to our polls) have their own computers, and an even bigger percent of students don?t use the school?s e-mail system, but everyone gets charged the fee twice a year (in the Fall and Spring). This is the reason why everyone should take advantage of the school?s e-mail, because you have already paid for it.

After that you have a Library fee, which is about $26. At one point or another whether you want to admit it or not, everyone has to use the library. With the AARC and the services the library provides, this is one of the few fees I can see why we are charged.

The next two fees I have yet to figure out, so maybe one of the readers can help me out here. There is a Student Service Fee which is about $107, and Student Center Fee which is about $5. I have heard several different things, such as this is what we pay for all of the use of the University Center and all of its activities, but I really don?t know what these are for. If you know what these are for, please mail us atsfascoop@usa.net and tell us.

Here is where they get you. The pine log is free, right? Wrong, every student pays a Publication fee of $13 each semester, to keep the Pine Log active. So next time you see that stack of Pine Log newspapers, pick one up, you paid for it.

The grand total in fees is about $290 (give or take a few dollars), and this is not including the charge for P.O. Boxes and the charge if you break you payment into installments. How did so many fees get stuck on the students? They made us pay them because we just keep on paying. They will keep on adding fees and fees until someone asks why or protest them doing it. Who decides what we need to be charged fees for? It's definitely not the common everyday student.

Credit cards are a trap set up by companies to forever hold people in debt. Think about it, banks make money on credit cards from people not paying their full amount. If you only pay the minimum payment, you are really only putting $10 dollars or less towards the actual bill, the rest goes to the finance charge. Where do you think the finance charge goes? It goes into the bank that owns the credit card companies? pocket. Pretty soon that bill gets higher and higher, and some students miss out on some payments, which allows the companies to add fees and raise the interest rate on the account. This is where the companies make the most money.

The credit card companies make of 70% of their money from students. They prey on incoming college freshman that have never had credit or the responsibility of spending money they don?t have. Credit card companies know that people just out of high school have an urge to be independent of their parents, and giving them a piece of plastic with their name on it is like giving them a piece of freedom. It is actually like giving them a bit of poison, leading them into a trap that will effect them for the rest of their lives.

Most credit card companies send out their "no annual fee" applications to college freshman through the mail. Some companies even send students a credit card ready to use; all the student has to do is activate it. Most incoming students know nothing about interest rates, and if they do, they only take a moment to glance and see the big print bragging about a "14.9 percent" interest rate. What they do not see is the fine print saying that this interest rate is only for a limited time, and that the regular interest rate is as high as 20 percent. The other way for the companies to target all students is by going to the colleges and hiring organizations to get people to fill out applications. Most of the companies will pay the organizations by the amount of applications that they get, giving them $1 to $2 per application, and pulling in 100 to 200 applications.

Students should be more educated about credit card scams and money management, but who?s going to teach them? There is not a Credit Card 101 class in college, and there is no high school requirement that will make them learn. I guess they will just learn when it is too late like most of us, when they are looking at two or three cards with outstanding bills.