Page_________ C M Y KSlate Pg 5

To me, at least, the

library is somewhere on campus to go when you need a quiet day to study for that exam or to write that paper you avoided until the last minute. Far too to many students at Shippensburg Univer-sity, the library is actu-ally another place to hold a social gathering.

Now I have no problem with students studying at the library with a group of friends, and throwing in a whispered conversation occasionally to lighten the studying mood. I do it all the time.

My issues lie with the students who come to the library, open their laptop and log onto Facebook, and proceed to talk far beyond a reasonable whisper for hours on end. This has hap-pened to me on two occa-sions now when students are completely oblivious to how distracting they are to the students around them.

I just simply cannot understand why students do this? No one is forcing the student to go to the library, so why are they there? If one is not going to study and just goof of with friends, I would suggest finding a different setting to do that.

The library is to study, not to socialize.

The only students who are forced to attend the library are fraternities and sororities who have to earn

a certain amount of study hours as part of pledging. I honestly think the frater-nities and sororities have an ingenious idea with the study hours, but it’s not perfect.

This year, I have noticed that when I am at the library, occasionally the students causing the dis-tractions are wearing Greek letters. Of course this is not evidence that they were in the library to fulfill study hours, but I had my suspicions based on the conversations they were constantly having.

One night I was trying to study for an exam and there was a group who were talking, for an hour straight. At one point they began talking so loud, most of the people study-ing were staring at them. It was rude, it was incon-siderate and that was not the end of it.

After the Gaga sisters social circle was conclud-ed, one of the girls sat at a table and began doing work. A few minutes lat-er, her friend walked over and said, “You’re actually doing work?”

It was like this cosmic event that she had only seen on very rare occa-sions. Imagine that, work at the library. I personally have never heard of it.

That comment really astounded me. These fra-ternities established study hours for a reason, so that the pledges would not fall behind in their school-work with all of the other activities in which they are required to participate.

I do not understand why these girls did not just take advantage of having to complete study hours and actually study? I understand that studying is about as much fun as polishing a door knob, but if you have to do it, you have to do it.

And do not be so incon-siderate of the people around you. They get that you are bored and you do not want to study. Well guess what, they may not want to be there either, but they have to be, and they would rather concen-trate and get through their studying in peace and qui-et. They did not come to the library to hear about the latest gossip.

The volume at the library has been so bad on a few occasions that there have actually been announce-ments made for people to quiet down. It is a college library, announcements like that should not have to be made. Students are supposed to be responsible adults, who should know to keep quiet while people are concentrating.

So please, the next time you are in the library think before you speak.

Do not be like the guy who I sat near and loudly boasted about his wres-tling career to the point that I had to ask him to keep it down. You can, however, be like one girl who shouted because she had headphones on, “Oh my God, my underwear is sticking it.”

That was a good study break for everyone.

“Hide ur kidz, hide ur wivez, hide ur huzban, cauz they keepin fear alive in here,” is just one of the satirical and clever signs on display at John Stew-art and Stephen Colbert’s “Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear.”

The slogan is of course in reference to the ingenious “Bed Intruder Song” which took a simple news report and auto-tuned the clip to make an extremely catchy song out of the flamboyant ranting of Antoine Dodson.

With other signs dis-playing such humorous quotes such as “I mastur-bate and I vote (but not usually at the same time)” and “fear the Amish,” the Dodson reference was not exactly a stand out piece. It only added to the not-so-serious atmosphere which is precisely what made a rally to restore sanity/fear so enjoyable.

Though the rally was supposed to be non-polit-ical, the overabundance of left-leaning attendees undoubtedly used the ven-ue to distribute literature and promote their causes.

It is no secret that John Stewart has a liberal bias when it comes to hosting “The Daily Show.” He does take shots at Democrats from time to time, but the majority of the jokes are thrown at Republicans.

Yes, there is a lot to make fun of when it comes

to Republicans, but more of a bal-ance would be nice to see. The same bias applies to Ste-phen Colbert as well. His Bill O’ Reilly on steroids persona is incredi-bly funny, but also paints conserva-tives as a herd of dimwitted sheep.

With that being said, it should have been no sur-prise to witness the large amount of anti-Fox News and pro-Democrat propa-ganda. From “God hates Fox News” to Glenn Beck bashing signs, the creativ-ity people put behind their smears was impressive.

Funny how a group that categorizes itself as toler-ant is so quick to vilify those who it disagrees with. Apparently fighting the insanity of portraying President Barack Obama as a kind apocalyptic Hit-ler-like figure who wants to destroy our “American way of life” means demon-izing the likes of Fox News and Sarah Palin.

Hypocrite much?Even Dick Armey, co-

author of “Give Us Lib-erty: A Tea Party Mani-festo,” commented that he enjoyed watching the rally and the message of com-mon sense and civility on ABC’s “This Week.”

Arianna Huffington, founder of the popular left-wing news site “The Huff-ington Post,” fired back at Armey and the Tea Party

immediately and accused them of promoting incivil-ity. This may be true to some extent, but the real question to ask is: would, Ms. Huffington, ever admit to enjoying, say, Glenn Beck’s “Rally to Restore Honor?”

By far the most ironic part of this blind devotion to liberal causes was the grief in riding the Wash-ington, D.C., metro to the rally. Just to get on a train going toward the rally from outside the city was a madhouse to say the least. Every time a train pulled into the station, a mob of people would rush into an already overcrowd-ed car, which resulted in maybe two people at the max squeezing in.

Naturally, this lack of preparation by the metro authority resulted in many quasi-violent struggles when those who were on the train pushed off those

Deciding whether or not to become a resident assis-tant is no small task.

There are many respon-sibilities that come with having such a prestigious title.

The job requires an indi-vidual to wear several hats on the same head. To be a successful resident assis-tant at Shippensburg Uni-versity, one must prepare to be an authoritarian, friend, mentor and leader to his or her residents.

As explained on the Shippensburg University Web site, “they (RAs) play an important role in the development of residence hall life and have broad responsibilities for the social, academic, and emo-tional growth of the stu-dents who reside in their hall.”

When I first decided to apply to be a resident assistant, I admit that a large part of my wanting to do so was the perks that come with the position.

Having a job at school that is not in one of the dining halls, being able to have a room to myself and priority scheduling, were all very appealing to me during my freshman year.

I soon learned that becoming a resident assis-tant is so much more than a room, money or the abil-ity to schedule early; it is a new lifestyle.

For those interested in becoming an RA, the main portion of the appli-cation process is the “RA Carousel,” which will be taking place in February. The Carousel is essentially an interview process that allows applicants to exhib-it qualities being sought out by Residence Life. This includes several activities in front of a panel of on-

lookers, as well as two interviews conducted by various staff members.

Fortunately, I was lucky enough to have been hired as a resident assistant.

After being placed and summer comes to an end, resident assistants are expected to participate in training programs before the beginning of the fall semester.

Despite some of the more monotonous moments of training, such as inspect-ing rooms to make sure they are in proper order for incoming students, there are many that make the whole experience worth it.

Spending time together as a staff to prepare for students, competing in both a fun field day and lip-sync are things that make RA training more fun.

At the beginning of my

www.theslateonline.com

BSection

November 9, 2010

Chelsea WehkingOpinion Editor

shipspeaks@gmail.com

T H E S L A T E

OPINION

4

Take it down a notch

Making Political Sense

Becoming an RA at SU

Hypocrisy disguised as sanityFor the first time in quite

a while, world news is “hit-ting home.” Recently the alcoholic beverage, Four Loko, has made headlines as the product to blame for alcohol poisoning in many college students.

On Oct. 26, ABC News released a story about an out-of-control party at Central Washington Uni-versity where police found dozens of students passed out, nine of whom were rushed to the hospital.

The students were origi-nally believed to be under the influence of drugs, but tests later proved that alcohol was the true cul-prit. Four Loko was the alcoholic beverage blamed for the illnesses.

This issue was brought to Shippensburg Univer-isty students’ attention by a recent e-mail from the university administration warning students of the dangers of the popular drink and urging us to dis-continue consuming it.

While I am sure the e-mail was sent with the sole intention of keeping SU students safe, I feel that it was slightly mis-guided. For example, the e-mail listed all of the dan-gers of ingesting Four Loko in a manner that actually appeals to students.

Excessive amounts of alcohol, caffeine, carbon-ation, sugar, guarana and taurine, as well as the “dif-ferent flavors that mask

the taste of alcohol” sound enjoyable, not

dangerous, to the aver-age college student.

The e-mail even included a color photo of a few cans of the drink in all its glory.

Aside from the danger-ous aspects of the contro-versial drink being pre-sented as a marketing campaign, the most upset-ting part of the e-mail was not the e-mail, but instead, the article linked within it.

The article, written by well-known reporters from ABC News, includes quota-tions that I find question-able, and actually quite humorous.

The best example of this is the quote from an addic-tion specialist who claims those who combine alcohol and caffeine are more like-ly to experience alcohol-related injuries than those who drink only alcohol.

If this statement is true, then why are traditional mixed drinks such as rum and cola and vodka and Red Bull so popular at bars across the nation? Why has the Alcohol and Tobac-co Tax and Trade Bureau, which regulates caffein-ated alcoholic beverages, not banned these age-old tonics?

The statement provided to ABC News by Phusion Projects, the company that produces Four Loko, included a similar state-ment.

“Consuming alcohol and caffeine has been done safely for years. Our prod-ucts contain less alcohol than an average rum and cola, less alcohol and caf-feine than an average Red Bull and vodka,” the state-ment read.

Taking this “blame game” one step further,

many colleges are actually banning Four Loko and attorneys general from multiple states are asking the Food and Drug Admin-istration to ban the prod-uct altogether.

This is an overdramatic attempt to ignore the true issue at hand. Authori-ties are placing blame on a product rather than the consumer.

Each can of Four Loko has seven labels inform-ing the consumer of the ingredients and insisting on the importance to only consume the drink legally. The company was even one of the first to add “We ID” labels to their products.

The company has upheld its responsibility of inform-ing consumers of the ingre-dients within the product and the dangers associated with them.

Why, then, do many feel that the company should also take responsibility for the actions of the consum-ers?

That is a ridiculous expectation, especially when many of these con-sumers are under the legal age. After all, they can-not walk into a beverage store and purchase alcohol, someone has to be pur-chasing it for them. Those underage consumers fall under the responsibility of the supplier, not the pro-duction company.

We all know how dan-gerous any form of alcohol can be, yet we have the right to choose to drink it. The true responsibility must lie in the hands of the students and other adults who choose to consume the beverage.

After all, choice and responsibility is what adulthood is all about.

Students go...

BY ASHLEY PRICEStaff Writer

See Rally, B2

See RA, B2

DISCLAIMERThe opinions expressed within these pages are those of the writers. The opinions do not reflect the opinions of The Slate, its staff members or

Shippensburg University as a whole.

BY JAMES MILLERStaff Columnist

BY CHELSEA WEHKINGOpinion Editor

BY KEVIN BATTERSBYAsst. Opinion Editor