I'm quickly becoming unpopular at school. You may remember my
diatribe in the school newspaper. This weeks newspaper
has a rebuttal.
OMG they accused me of being too wordy!
UPDATE:
More on this UMass nonsense - You can find a first draft of my reply to The Mass Media's News Editor Carl Brooks
here.
This week there's an interview with
Mass. State Representative James Fagan (contact him
here), sponsor of HB 2400. After comparing MassPIRG's credibility to the "bacteria that lives in the feces of a rabid dog" here is how he answers the "student's rights" issue:
MM: So you believe that the students' rights [argument] is a false one?
F: ...I fully believe that in a democratic society every organization or point of view should be given the opportunity to express itself, particularly in higher education, where people are supposed to develop and expose themselves to different types of philosophies and ideas and thoughts. I think it's particularly important that everyone be given an equal place on the table. I think that MassPIRG has a very incestuous and therefore unfair position that they simply wish to protect.
I think that what happens now is that students, when they're filling out their forms and doing all the rest of those things, they're so busy with so many things they're involved in, your college applications and enrollment, that it's very easy to overlook the fact that MassPIRG, for no good reason, takes five dollars of your money every semester unless you choose to say, "No, I don't choose to give." I think the reverse would be much fairer. That if it's gonna be on there at all, it should be a check-off that says, "I choose to pay an additional five-dollar fee to support MassPIRG."
I think MassPIRG is the first to recognize that the likelihood of many students doing that on their own is significantly less than the situation they find themselves in now. And that's why they're fighting so vehemently against it.
Also in this weeks paper: A student senator weighs in against HB 2400 because
MassPIRG is such a good organization for students.
