The use of the term “crazy” referring to any individual is unwelcome on campus, and has no place at any institute of higher education. Using mental health as a pejorative marginalizes a large group of students on campus and throughout society. People are often unaware how offensive and oppressive terms like this can be when used by individuals, which is why it is important to communicate how biases and offensive comments are not welcome and to have an effective method of dealing with them.

In my position as UMSU Council’s Students Living With Disabilities Representative, my predecessors and I have been working towards making our campus inclusive, and I want to assure the community that I am taking every necessary step to ensure a safe, accessible, compassionate and open community. The community of students living with disabilities, for this very reason, have been very active in hosting workshops, talks, and information booths on campus similar to Disability Awareness Days to help end the usage of such terminology and confront barriers that students living with disabilities may face. I have also, in my position as Chair of the Policy & Bylaws Committee, been part of the development of UMSU’s new draft policy on Harassment & Discrimination which will come up at the next meeting of UMSU Council.

Bryan Douglas
Students Living with a Disability Rep.

RE: Where’s Penelope? (March 23, 2011)

I would like to challenge the universality of Ms Guard and Ms Medero’s article about hog farming. Granted, corporate hog farms are hard on the environment, the pigs, and the people who eat their meat, but I think the authors have mistakenly attacked the hog industry as a whole. There are farmers who aren’t preoccupied with fancy labels like “free-run” and “organic” and instead ensure that their animals are able to run free and live naturally.

My mother-in-law is a small scale, family operated pork farmer. Her animals are well cared for, and are free to wander in large pastured land. They play in the mud and bask in the sun. They also have a shelter to come back to when the weather gets bad.

The argument should be with a style of farming that is environmentally and ethically unsound. Be curious, investigate and get to know you farmer. Consider a responsible alternative to corporate farming by choosing a small family operated farm.

John Robins

RE: The Manitobian (March 31, 2011)

I am absolutely appalled and extremely disappointed with this week’s publication of The Manitoban. I normally enjoy reading the school newspaper for its discussion of relevant issues to the city and more importantly, the U of M. I picked up this week’s edition in the morning before class and was severely let down by its content — the last thing I want to read before an 8:30am Physics lecture is an overly sarcastic, garbage-filled newspaper. If that’s what I was looking for, I would’ve picked up a tabloid instead. Your only saving grace was the Snakes & Ladders on the back page.

If this is your idea of an April Fool’s joke, you sure have poor taste. And I’d rather the expense not come from my tuition, thank you very much. I hope next week’s edition compensates for this week’s mess.

Sincerely (and severely pissed off),
Heather Wittick

ps. How could you expect to win any votes to “Save the Manitoban” when you publish meaningless poor journalistic quality paper such as this. I believe we’re students with opinions and brains for a reason.