by M. Lionel Bender

I don’t know which depresses me more:the recent first-page ad for the weekend beer fest disguised as a news story, the big story (Sept. 22) that the College Republicans are having Ollie North as their honored guest in November or (Monday’s) report on the Hawaiian shaman who dispensed New Age-like platitudes at $150 per session per person under Small Business Incubator sponsorship. Why does the DE report these scams without a hint of skepticism? I think it’s time for SIUC to have a Humanist and Skeptic Association to be in place to speak out against such scams. I invite any SIUC student, faculty member, employee, etc. to contact me if they want to get one started.

Now the praise. At last the DE gets it right regarding the faculty union in its Sept. 22 editorial Administrators should take union’s demands seriously. With the faculty and civil service union rejecting insulting status quo contract offers, with the students properly ticked off about the administration not consulting them on policies directly affecting them, and with the latest example of arrogance (the unilateral calendar change) the message is clear:The administration should seriously consider changing their ways. The rules have changed. Consultation now is required in place of the old rule of by fiat that we have seen for at least the past 26 years.

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professor emeritus, foreign languages and literature