Letters to the Editor
(Re: “Stressful culture contributes to CAPS waitlist,” Feb. 26) I am obligated to correct the central thesis that students are being waitlisted for appointments at CAPS. If I were a student in need of counseling and were told that there was a three-week wait to get in, I may not bother to call for an appointment. One of the things we strive for at CAPS is reducing the barriers to any student’s ability and willingness to get mental health care on campus. When we begin to approach capacity in terms of caseloads, we hire additional staff to help meet the demand for service. During peak times, there are situations in which students with only one or two hours available in their schedule have to wait a week for an appointment, but this is exceptional. CAPS has not had a waitlist for quite some time and as many students can attest, Diane Mazzocca, our administrative coordinator, has been known to work miracles for students in need of an appointment!
Cynthia K. Valley
Director, Counseling and
Psychological Services
(Re: “Protestors wage war on CMU military contracting,” March 5) Using the reasoning of David Meieran and The Tartan’s own columnists, I have come to the conclusion that we should equip our army with swords and bows and arrows. I suppose that’s the best way to avoid “soulless” war.
People need to pick their battles and use their energies a little better. If we’ve reached the point as a country that we’re going to invade another country, then we should aim to minimize the loss of life (particularly our own) as much as possible. Protesting our country going to war or the amount of money being spent on weapons research would be more constructive.
Once money’s been allotted to military research, we should get the best “soulless killing machines” possible (ignoring for a moment any arguments that might arise from having watched Terminator 2). Military and government research has always spawned useful consumer technologies. They’d probably also encourage you to visit a military hospital and see the thousands of soldiers who are coming back from this war with traumatic injuries. They’d probably suggest you look at the toll war — in general, not in Iraq specifically — exacts on the people who fight it, and then decide if you don’t want to give those who are putting their lives on the line the best killing machines possible.
Chris Highley
BME graduate student
(Re: “Killer robots pose moral and branding issues for University,” March 5) As one of the members of POG that was arrested on March 2, I greatly appreciated the article Ms. Lukiewski and Ms. Cahill wrote. The article was extremely well written and the perspective that the authors took was both positive and intelligently articulated. They explained the situation accurately, and really made the connections that we in POG hoped would be made between NREC, CMU, and warfare. I honestly think that because of their editorial, many students will be more aware of the facility of NREC and perhaps want to take a stronger stance against it and other structures linked to perpetuating a war mentality. I encourage everyone to stay involved in the anti-war movement and progressive issues in general!
Alecia Ott
John Carroll University