Letters to the Editor

4/8/10 7:00pm

RUPD concerned for campus safety

To the Editor:The Rice University Police Department is here to keep the campus safe. Contrary to Yan Digilov's March 19 opinion column ("Inconsistent enforcement tarnishes image of RUPD"), RUPD has not had a "change of heart" in enforcing the law.

Regarding the recent incident at Brown College in which students were arrested for possession of large quantities of marijuana, RUPD went to the college in response to a request by another student to unlock the door to their room. The smell of pot was so pervasive in the hallways that the residents pointed to several rooms as the source. No RUPD officer could not notice, then turn their back on the large volume of marijuana that was being used.

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Regarding the ticketing of illegally parked cars, only one of the three parking officers was recently hired as a new position. The other two were positions that had been vacant due to the incumbents receiving promotions. Via e-mails to listservs and college masters and an article in Rice News, we alerted the Rice community that these officers would be patrolling the campus. The stricter enforcement of parking regulations was warranted by complaints about illegally parked cars and the need to keep campus roadways clear in case firetrucks and ambulances need to get to a destination quickly in an emergency.

Yan expressed concern about "irresponsible behavior" from members of the same law enforcement staff that he has found to be "very intelligent, caring officers of the law." RUPD officers are indeed smart and sincerely concerned about the welfare of our students and their campus, and the only irresponsible behavior would be for our officers not to do the job they were hired to do.

Bill Taylor

Chief of Police Rice University Police Department

IT fee waived for graduate students

To the Editor:

On behalf of the Graduate Student Association, we would like to sincerely thank President David Leebron and Vice President for Finance Kathy Collins for the Rice administration's latest affirmation of the commitment of Rice University to its graduate students. Dean of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies Paula Sanders recently announced to graduate students that we would no longer be required to pay an Information Technology fee. IT infrastructure and services have assumed a fundamental role in Rice's educational and research missions and we did not think it was preferable to fund them even partially through student fees. We applaud the administration for this decision and, as always, look forward to future cooperation.

Members of

GSA Executive Committee

Vegetarian diets healthy, balanced

To the Editor:

As an athlete on a plant-based diet, I wanted to address some misconceptions in the article regarding vegetarianism ("Eater's Digest: Vegging out," March 26). Of course vegetarianism won't balance your diet for you. However, a plant-based diet is by no means more likely to be unbalanced than an omnivorous diet. All plants are rich in amino acids, the building blocks of protein. Plant-based foods high in protein include beans, peas, nuts, nutritional yeast, soy and whole grains. (The research stating that these need to be eaten in specific combinations in order to be effective has since been disproved.) While animal flesh is a good source of protein, it is also a good source of cholesterol, saturated fat and sulfur, which is linked to bone weakness. As for protein deficiency, I have yet to meet anyone who is protein deficient. In fact, the primary cause of osteoporosis in the United States is the high-protein American diet. A 2001 University of California study found that women with diets high in animal protein had three times the bone loss of those who received their protein from plants.

In addition, most humans are lactose intolerant: 95 percent of Asian Americans, 74 percent of Native Americans, 70 percent of African Americans, 53 percent of Mexican Americans and 15 percent of Caucasians. We are the only species that drinks milk after infancy, let alone the milk of other animals. In short, while eating plant-based foods goes against the American norm, the American norm is also associated with obesity and disease.

Molly Schultz

Hanszen freshman

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