Once again the Iowa State Daily has disappointed me. What better way for new students to be greeted by the campus newspaper than by a front cover photo of a Department of Public Safety officer looking tough and busting a young man while the other officer next to the parking division truck is writing a parking ticket. What a great image to show new students to Iowa State University! And even more ironic some of the other students in the background look like they are having a good time when the focus of the scene is someone getting busted. Not only is this a disturbing first impression of your publication but to DPS as well. DPS may have been given a bad reputation by students for “ruining their fun” or giving them parking tickets but DPS also does a lot of good things for students on this campus besides the usual busts and tickets. They are here for our safety and to help you out in the worst times. But what was even more disappointing to me was some of the things inside the welcome edition. The full-page advertisement on page 56 where half the things on the “to do list for first week” include activities involving alcohol. Yes this may be a reach but frequent alcohol use does affect academics whether people agree or not, and underage use of alcohol is illegal anyway. You would think a campus newspaper would be more careful about the content in the advertisements it prints or do you just do that on Veishea week? And last but not least the one thing that really irked me. One of your “words of wisdom.” “Be prepared for fights with your roommate.” This really bothers me as a Resident Assistant where we try to promote a positive and fun community. Yes, there are people who will not get along with their roommates, but students should not assume that they will not get along with their roommate or that it is common problem. I am entering my third semester as a R.A., and last year I never ran into any roommate conflicts that the students could not work out in a calm manner or heard of any R.A.s who had huge problems on their floors concerning roommate problems. Overall, I do have to say your welcome back edition had a lot of useful information in it. However, once again you have not used your best judgment and created in my opinion a bad first impression with a simple cover photo that stereotypes a negative image of DPS and represents the product of your publication. Travis Simpson

Junior

Management information systems