Two recent Kentucky Kernel columns, and the online comments that followed, show a major issue on campus is the division between Greek and non-Greek students. This disunion has created an unhealthy campus atmosphere that hinders UK’s goals.

Let me first say I do not intend to place blame on a certain group for this divide. I do not think the Greeks are solely responsible, nor do I think this is completely the fault of the non-Greeks. I believe we are all equally responsible for this divide.
Whether we started it or inherited it from previous generations of students, we must be held accountable for the animosity-filled atmosphere that exists. We are all at fault because we have done nothing to change it.

I also do not want to suggest that the Greek system should be disbanded altogether so a Greek/non-Greek divide would not have the chance to exist.

I think it is great that a student can come to UK and find an organization that improves his or her college experience. If that organization is Greek, then perfect. If that organization is non-Greek, then that is OK, too.

Eli Edwards

Rather than focusing on whether Greeks or non-Greeks do more community service or donate more money to charities, we should acknowledge that UK students as a whole are making a difference in the world.

The Greeks were scolded in online comments for only donating “$29.10” per person. While these numbers may not be accurate, still $29 is better than nothing.

We, of course, have no statistics on how much each individual UK student donated to charity, but I would venture to guess that the average would actually be much lower than $29.10 per person. However, as already mentioned, Greek affiliation or lack thereof should not matter.

What should matter is the positive effect that UK students are having on humanity.

We as students can do a lot to help this divide.

First and foremost, we need to evaluate the offensive language we use carelessly. Pejorative terms like “sorostitute” and “GDI” have no place on a college campus. They breed hatred, add distance between students and honestly reflect ignorance. The aggressive dialogue in the online comments is embarrassing to both sides.

Second, we need to acknowledge the countless benefits of all student organizations.

In the online comments, non-Greeks discredited the accomplishments of Greeks and vice-versa. Really, we should recognize the merit of both side’s contributions.

Greek organizations do in fact log many service hours and donate a large amount of money to charity. Their accomplishments should not go unnoticed.

At the same time, many non-Greek organizations, including service and honors fraternities and the Center for Community Outreach, also do a lot of community service and donate to charity. The achievements of these organizations should not be overlooked either.

Finally, we need to realize that we are all the same. We are all UK students. We all bleed red (well, blue). We all have emotions and feelings. We all want to make a difference.

Something as silly as Greek versus non-Greek affiliation should not divide us. Instead, our desire to cause change in this world should bring us together.

I understand this column might accentuate the divide by bringing attention to it. However, I hope by acknowledging the problem, we can solve it.

We have the opportunity to be known as the generation that overcame the divide between Greeks and non-Greeks. Let us make a difference.

Eli Edwards is a secondary English education, English and linguistics junior and a College of Education Senator. Email opinions@kykernel.com.

Brock Meade (left) and Alisher Burikhanov

What is the ONE campaign? It is a student organization that’s combating disease, famine and poverty in places where these issues prevent human life from flourishing.

Through local advocacy we can raise awareness and educate the public so they can share their voices with our congressional representatives who will ultimately decide future public policies.

For example, AIDS is problematic across the world; however, it is at its worst on the African continent. Currently, infection outpaces treatment by a two to one ratio, but through the collaboration of African governments, organizations, private sectors and the support of the world, the beginning of the end of AIDS is tangible.

The ONE campaign aims to end this pandemic by 2015 by ending mother-child transmission of HIV, providing treatment to the 15 million people who need it and reducing new infections.

The most effective method in combating famine and poverty is through agricultural progress. Through stability and improvement of farming technique, people can gain agricultural independence to feed their families and local community. These are the issues we as ONE members recognize.

The way to accomplish these ambitious goals is through ONE challenges. The upcoming challenge is called, “Saving Lives’ Through SMS.”

In countries where landlines are not established, cellphones are used in the health and medical sector so clinicians and patients can communicate to resolve medical emergencies in a safe and timely manner.

The UK ONE campaign will be holding a campus-wide used cellphone drive to assist health care workers and reach the goal of 35,000 cellphones!

ONE campaign, many voices, 35,000 cellphones.

Join us and fight for humanity by liking the UK ONE campaign Facebook page and by coming out to one of our events or meetings. For further information contact Sarah Van Royen at srva223@g.uky.edu

Brock Meade (left) is a psychology freshman. Alisher Burikhanov is a political science senior. Email opinions@kykernel.com.

Will Nash

Aaliyah dreamed of becoming a nurse, but didn’t know she would need to use math every day in that profession. Nor did she know she would need to master high school math to be admitted to nursing school. As a sixth-grader who was three grade levels behind in math, she wasn’t on a path to achieving her dream.

Aaliyah’s story is common among students growing up in low-income communities. National data shows that when kids growing up in poverty enter kindergarten, they are already academically behind their wealthier peers.

This gap in educational opportunity only widens over time. By the fourth grade, they are three grade levels behind and half won’t graduate from high school. Only 1 in 10 will attend college and for those lacking a college degree, many doors are firmly shut.

That first semester, Aaliyah and I spent long hours working to build the basics and I partnered with her mom, her pastor and her cheerleading sponsor to help keep her motivated.

I wrote word problems about her favorite topics — cheerleading and fashion — to keep her engaged and, as the year progressed, Aaliyah proved that she could accomplish whatever she put her mind to. By June, Aaliyah had grown two years in just one school year. By the end of the following school year, she had made a total of five years of growth and was ready to start eighth grade doing math on grade-level.

Kids like Aaliyah can’t wait. They only get one shot at a good education that will set them up for future life opportunities.

That’s why I joined Teach For America and taught middle school math in Baton Rouge, La., after graduating from UK. As an undergraduate, I saw the achievement gap between students growing up in poverty and their more affluent peers limit the prospects of a number of friends who arrived at college unprepared for the rigor of college coursework. Many had to take remedial classes while others dropped out, giving up on their college dream.

In Kentucky, only 42 percent of our high school students graduate ready for college. I wanted to give the next generation of students the same opportunity I had to be a Wildcat, regardless of their family income. Teach For America gave me the chance to join efforts addressing one of our nation’s most pressing problems and make a difference during my time in the classroom.

After my initial two-year commitment, I joined Teach For America’s staff as a recruitment manager so I could help more campus leaders become classroom leaders.

When I graduated from UK in 2006, Teach For America hadn’t yet become a member of the Kentucky education community. Last fall, however, I had the privilege of partnering with the community to launch our Appalachia region, where I serve as executive director.

With a teaching corps here in Kentucky, talented UK students now have the opportunity to work alongside our community’s efforts to address this pressing issue.

This year, 22 corps members are reaching 2,100 students in Kentucky, and another 65 Teach For America alumni call the state home and continue working from all sectors to give our kids the excellent education they deserve.

I can think of nothing more impactful a recent college graduate can undertake than shaping the lives of a classroom of students. It’s an unmatched opportunity to use the leadership skills you’ve cultivated at UK while working alongside other committed educators to change the lives of students and strengthen communities.

Knowing that we can close the achievement gap for students like Aaliyah, I simply can’t walk away from this work. As you think about the role you will play in the broader world upon graduation, I hope you will consider joining me in these efforts.

The final application deadline for Teach For America is approaching on Feb. 10, so I urge you to visit teachforamerica.org to learn more or start your application.

Will Nash is a 2006 UK political science and economics alumnus and the executive director for Teach for America, Appalachia. Email opinions@kykernel.com.

Raising money for charity is a positive reflection of fraternities and sororities for UK.

Community service hours are another positive reflection of fraternities and sororities for UK.

Wrapping a young man in toilet paper and setting him on fire? Is this a positive reflection of fraternities and sororities for UK?

Sigma Alpha Epsilon received the boot from campus for good reason. Other fraternities that received either sanctions or suspensions were given those for good reason as well.

Underage drinking in the fraternity house? Selling drugs out of the fraternity house? Come on, guys.

I know a thing or two about being in real fraternity. I was a president of Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia and a member of the Freemasons, and these men are not setting a good example for the younger generation, or the “new guys” as Delta Tau Delta President Brandon Butler said in his deft explanation of how the sanctions affected his fraternity in the related Dec. 1 article.

The relation to dorm life is also utterly ridiculous. In a dorm, the person in the room next to you isn’t your sworn brother and does not have any responsibility to make sure you are representing yourself and your organization with pride.

The boys of SAE claim to be “True Gentlemen,” until they need a laugh, I guess.

In the end, fraternities need to realize they add little actual value to campus as a whole. They may mean a great deal in the sorority circle but that, too, is a small part of campus.

Fraternity means brotherhood, looking out for your brother, helping to raise your brother and if your brother is caught forcing someone to drink until they puke, you are just as liable because you didn’t stop it.

Grow up, little boys. Take your punishment, learn from it and do what many of your charters claim your mission is and “become better men.”

Tristan Root is a history junior. Email opinions@kykernel.com.

While I consider Black History Month to be a noble and relevant educational endeavor, it is truly the present day chronic health crisis affecting African Americans, especially cardio-vascular disease, that I am most concerned about.

The statistics are startling. According to the American Heart Association, nearly four in 10 African Americans have some form of CVD, which is an umbrella term for diseases of the heart and circulatory system, including strokes, high blood pressure, congestive heart failure, congenital heart defects and hardening of the arteries.

A government study in 2010 showed considerably higher annual death rates among African Americans ages 64 and under, compared to their white counterparts.

An estimated 107,000 American blacks will die this year from complications of CVD, making it by far the number one cause of death among African American adults.

Despite these grim numbers, there is hope. Improved community educational outreach and co-operation between governmental and non-profit health agencies are possible solutions to remedy these health disparities. Health education is often a precursor to preventative care and behavioral lifestyle change.

Ending health disparities is something we all, regardless of race or background, should be concerned about.

The Milken Institute estimates that the total economic cost of chronic diseases to the U.S. economy was more than a trillion dollars in 2003. Clearly if any group in our nation suffers, we all suffer.

We must not see this as an African American health problem, but as a U.S. public health problem.

I urge everyone regardless of ethnic background to know the risks regarding CVD. The PAWS Center, located on the first floor of the University Health Services building, provides students with the opportunity to speak with a professional health educator free of charge.

Mike Thornton is a second year Master of Health Promotion Graduate Student and Iraq War Veteran. Email opinions@kykernel.com.

Since I came to this university in 2008 we have had six fraternities kicked off campus: Kappa Alpha Psi, Sigma Alpha Epsilon, Lambda Chi Alpha, Sigma Pi, Sigma Nu and Sigma Phi Epsilon. We currently have two on probation, Phi Sigma Kappa and FarmHouse, and one that just got off of probation, Delta Tau Delta.

UK only has 19 fraternities, four that do not have a fraternity house at all. That means 60 percent of fraternities with houses have been kicked off campus or been on some sort of probation since 2008. That is a staggering number.

Now let’s look at what the fraternities at UK have contributed to the community using statistics from the Office of Student Affairs’ own website. Using statistics for fall 2010, in 2009 fraternities donated a total of $42,583 to charities across the country, completed 14,421 hours of community service and had an average grade point average of 2.97, which is above the all-male average.

On top of this, the Interfraternity Council approved the addition of a bylaw that called for all fraternities to have an average grade point average of a 3.0 or face multiple forms of probation.

Given all of these incredible things 1,463 college men do every single semester, you would think UK would work with these organizations and not kick them out entirely.

When a person is caught drinking in a dorm room the university does not swoop in and kick every person living in that dorm out. They provide classes to go to learn what alcohol does to the body. Why then, when one person is caught with alcohol in a fraternity house, does the university kick the organization as a whole from the university? It is a blatant double standard.

Kicking every member of a fraternity off campus or putting them on probation for one individuals’ mistake makes me feel that the Office of Fraternity and Sorority Affairs does not appreciate anything that fraternities do as organizations.

To quote the  Kernel article “Fraternity proactive after suspension, years of sanctions” on Dec. 1., “As a member of the Greek community, you are held to a higher standard. When someone messes up it reflects on the whole community.” Really?

One person messes up and it reflects on the entire community? Using that logic I guess everyone who has flunked out, had alcohol on campus or even smoked a cigarette on campus reflects the image of the entire university. Last time I checked, this great university does not have a bad image.

Fraternities and sororities do great things for this campus and the community, be it from donating money, doing community service or simply getting good grades.

Fraternities will always reflect UK in a positive manner. It is time for the Office of Fraternity and Sorority Affairs to step aside and let us do what we do best.

Jim Blackerby is an international studies senior. Email opinions@kykernel.com.

Derived from Gaelic terminology meaning “gathering,” ceilidhs (pronounced kay-lees or kay-lays) traditionally involved the telling of stories and the singing of songs among friends. However, in modern day, ceilidhs have evolved into social parties where vibrant folk music is played and Scottish dances are danced.

Jordan Covvey

For those of you thinking “square dance,” you are heading down the right track — but replace the cowboy boots and belt buckles with kilts and knee socks.

At my first ceilidh, I arrived at the National Piping Centre in Glasgow, a place where I like to think all the little bagpipes of the world are born and given their own unique melodious screech. In reality, it’s a training school for people interested in learning the art of the instrument, as well as a museum and an event venue.

I was attending this ceilidh with a large group of my fellow American Fulbrighters, which made the experience even grander, since practically none of us knew what we were in for and were of equally lacking ceilidh-ing ability. We had just figured out how to pronounce the word, for goodness sakes.

Our room for the evening was set with an open dance floor and a stage with a live band, including fiddle, guitar and percussion. After a nice dinner (haggis, neeps and tatties, of course), we all gathered on the dance floor and looked around aimlessly for someone to tell us what to do.

Someone better help this group out otherwise we might just take the safe route and break into the “Electric Slide.”

Luckily, a dance instructor for the evening emerged (known as a ceilidh caller), who graciously taught us the steps to several common dances. Dances both involved a single partner or groups of people, and uniformly required the stamina of a marathon-runner and the ability to twirl around in circles endlessly without vomiting the previously consumed haggis on the floor.

Luckily there were no such incidents, and we danced our little American hearts out for the next two hours to dances such as “The Flying Scotsman” and “The Gay Gordons.”

There were multiple collisions had among the arms and legs being flung about, but the smiles and belly-laughs were far more consistent.

Finally, the evening came to a close, and ended traditionally with the linking of hands among friends and singing of “Auld Lang Syne” (a Robert Burns poem).

I lost the feeling in my toes the next morning and suffered from mild dehydration, but I’ll give it to the Scots — these people sure know how to have a good time.

For more information on the US-UK Fulbright Commission, visit fulbright.co.uk.

Jordan Covvey is a 2010 Doctor of Pharmacy graduate from the UK College of Pharmacy. She is currently a Ph.D. candidate and Fulbright-Strathclyde Postgraduate Scholar at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow, Scotland.  Her monthly column will follow her experiences and cultural education across the pond. Email opinions@kykernel.com.

These individuals have already been deemed as liabilities who are dangerous because they failed to adhere to society’s virtues, and they must serve their sentence accordingly. But, in actuality, it is the American society who has failed them.

Eva McEnrue

The U.S. system of youth incarceration is an injustice that is severely out-of-step with international law, which rejects the practice of trying adolescents as adults and administering long sentences. Incarcerating young people is not only costly; it is unfair and ineffective in prohibiting crime.

According to the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, young people who are transferred from the juvenile justice system to the adult criminal system are approximately 34 percent more likely to be re-arrested for a crime than those kept within the juvenile court system.

This isn’t surprising considering the limited services, lack of positive role models and prevalence of violence within adult facilities.

Adult facilities fail to provide youth with the educational and rehabilitative services needed at their stage of development. Without the suitable educational merits or vocational training, youth offenders who are released back into their communities are even less capable of becoming employed and achieving economic success.

Adult facilities also place youth in immense danger of becoming sexual victims.

“More than any other group of incarcerated persons, youth incarcerated with adults are probably at the highest risk for sexual abuse,” the National Prison Rape Elimination Commission reported.

And with juveniles comprising only one percent of adult jail inmates, the Bureau of Justice Statistics’ report that 13 percent of all inmate-on-inmate sexual violence victims were youth under the age of 18 is truly sickening.

Adult facilities fail to keep youth safe from violence as well, and most often young people are segregated into isolation or solitary confinement, which regularly consists of being locked in small cells with no natural light for 23 hours a day, according to the Campaign for Youth Justice. These conditions can lead to paranoia, anxiety, mental disorders and increased risk of suicide.

The grim reality is that youths detained in adult jails are 36 times more likely to commit suicide than those housed in juvenile detention facilities.

Is this justice? Should a young person’s future be determined by a choice he or she made before their cognitive abilities fully developed? Were these individuals simply born monsters or did they make an adolescent mistake due to their lack of maturity?

In 1982, a jury sentenced Kevin Stanford to death for a crime he committed when he was only 17 years old. Stanford received weak representation at his trial. No attempt was made to challenge damaging testimony or to pursue the two witnesses who identified another individual being at the murder scene. Another key piece of evidence — Stanford’s social history — was also never presented to the jury.

The all-white jury that convicted the African-American teenager was never informed of his life filled with neglect, maltreatment and violence, as well as sexual, physical and mental abuse.

The fact is that youth offenders, like Stanford, often grow up in a home that fails to teach society’s “golden rules.” Youth offenders are often raised in impoverished environments and experience a combination of neglect, violence, poverty and physical, sexual or psychological abuse. These conditions, the International Justice Project reports, decrease one’s ability to make choices rationally.

Trying youths as adults and administering long sentences is a pervasive and profound issue shaping communities because of the nature of power. It is unfair for society to place immense punishment on an individual who lacks control of their living conditions, impulses, emotions, judgments and identity.

When prosecuting young people as adults, emphasis should not be placed merely on the facts of the crime. We must also examine and present the individual’s social history.

Ultimately, we have all already failed these youth offenders by failing to intervene in the detrimental, often horrific, circumstances of their life. We cannot fail them again when it matters most — deciding their future.

Eva McEnrue is a journalism senior and the Kernel’s opinion editor. Email emcenrue@kykernel.com.

We joke about stalking all the time. Stalking someone is normal for my friends.

Jokes about stalking are common. Stalking type behaviors, especially for young people in high school or college, may seem normal.

It may be fine to text or call someone 50 times a day. It may be fine to feel like someone is following you because you keep noticing them everywhere you go. It may be fine for your boyfriend or someone who wants to date you to wait for you somewhere you didn’t think they would be.

However, it is not okay when these kinds of things are unwanted, repeated and make you afraid or concerned for your safety or the safety of someone close to you. That is when it crosses the line to stalking.

Stalking is a deliberate set of tactics used to scare, annoy, harass, sabotage or control their target. Even if your friends or others tell you not to be afraid or concerned, you should always trust your instincts and take precautions if this is happening to you.

Stalking is just about somebody romantically trying to pursue his or her object of desire.

Pursuing someone for a date often entails repeated and potentially persistent contact attempts especially when the other person does not seem initially receptive. This behavior appears to overlap with some aspects of stalking.

In fact, movies often portray the persistent male as the one who eventually wins over his love interest in the end. So, yes, sometimes individuals who are trying to establish or maintain a relationship engage in repeated texts, Facebook postings, phone calls and maybe even following someone around.

However, it crosses the line when it becomes unwanted and when it causes fear or concern for safety in the person being targeted with this kind of attention.

Celebrities are more likely to experience stalking than someone I know personally.

We have all heard about celebrity stalking such as the cases of Erin Andrews, Selena Gomez, Madonna and David Letterman. While stalking does happen to celebrities, politicians and others in the media, it also commonly happens to people not in the public eye.

For example, a random household survey of regular people (non-celebrities) by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that 1 in 6 women and 1 in 19 men had been stalked and were frightened by the stalking.

In fact, college students are at high risk of being stalked.

Stalking is creepy and annoying, but not dangerous.

Stalking is creepy and annoying — but it can also be dangerous. Stalkers can become violent and should be taken seriously.

In fact, stalking is a crime in all 50 states.

The specific motives of stalkers are not all that clear. Some researchers speculate that stalkers are obsessed with the target, feel angry and want revenge, want to establish or maintain a relationship or are looking for any kind of attention from the target, including fear.

Typically, it is committed by people we know and should be able to trust — current or ex-partners, classmates, co-workers and other acquaintances.

Recent research by UK professor Dr. TK Logan and her colleagues shows that stalking by a controlling, jealous and violent boyfriend is especially dangerous.

Specifically, some research shows that partner stalkers make more violent threats and are more likely to act on those threats than stalkers who do not target partners or ex-partners.

However, being stalked by anyone whether they are a stranger, an acquaintance or a current or ex-partner can be dangerous.

Modern technology is too expensive and confusing for most stalkers to use.

Using the computer to stalk and harass is common — often referred to as cyber-stalking.

Additionally, surveillance technology can be purchased for a relatively small amount of money and is often used in creative ways.

If you ignore stalking or confront the stalker, it will stop.

Ignoring or confronting the stalker often does not work and may even increase the danger. It is important to remember that each situation is different and you may want to work with a professional to develop a safety plan.

For more information you can call the UK police at 859-257-1616, the Lexington Police at 911 or 859-258-3600, UK Violence Intervention and Prevention Center at 859-257-3574 or the Bluegrass Domestic Violence Program at 800-544-2022.

Dr. TK Logan is a professor in the Department of Behavioral Science, College of Medicine and the Center on Drug and Alcohol Research. Melanie O. Matson is director of the Violence Intervention and Prevention Center. This is the first in a series of three articles about stalking. Email opinions@kykernel.com

Due to the absolutely terrible coal-fired power plants on UK’s campus, more and more seniors have regressed into black sludge, like people with clouds of soot emanating from their mouths when they speak or cough.

It seems the horrible output of harmful materials spewing out of the power plants has taken its toll on students that have been here for four years or longer. I got a chance to talk to one of these “sludge people” when I saw him eating a dead squirrel and pulling his hair out.

“I didn’t used to be like this. It all started when I first came here as a freshman and with virgin lungs. I guess it started when I kept having to breathe in the sickly emissions from the coal plant that spill into the air here. It started off with my skin turning black, and then progressed when I started to notice that all of my footprints had a black, foul-smelling sludge on them.

“Eventually my spit started turning black and as you see, now my skin is completely black and I have the sludge coming out of all of my pores. It’s hard to even get anyone to talk to me so that’s when I started to live with the squirrels. They aren’t biased and they can accept me for who I am.”

UK students can see the “cloud of smog that can be seen for miles in our city.”

Using the Kernel article “Modern coal mining is essential for the future” from Jan. 16, 2012, one student wrote that the coal fired power plant is, “churning out the blue-gray smog that often hovers at street level, creeps into your parked cars, onto your faces as you stroll downtown and through campus, into your homes and ultimately into your lungs.”

That’s well put and it seems that the “sludge people” seem to agree.

One of the “sludge people” said, “Yeah that pretty much sums it up. That’s how it started with me. I had blue-gray smog assaulting me from all angles. I couldn’t escape it until finally I started coughing up soot and black powder. Whoever wrote that article has it completely right; those smog clouds are just terrible.”

After doing some observations, it seems that the author of the article on Jan. 16, 2012, was just scraping the tip of the iceberg. Not only does it “creep into your parked cars, onto your faces as you stroll downtown and through campus, into your homes and ultimately into your lungs,” but it also watches you sleep at night and sometimes goes into your fridge for your leftovers.

UK needs to look at these examples, take them seriously and stop the use of coal-fired power plants.

Not only because it could change the fate of UK students who would otherwise turn into “sludge people,” but because, and I think I speak for all of us, we would just love to pay a lot more money for electricity bills.

Jim Blackerby is an international studies senior. Email opinions@kykernel.com.

Aqsa Qureshi

This semester the Muslim Student Association has decided to make an active effort in disbanding some of the misconceptions that are still perceived by many Americans.

Though over 10 years have elapsed since the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in 2001, not much has changed in America’s perception of Islam.

In fact, one of the largest misconceptions about Islam is that it is spread by violence. However, in Indonesia, the largest Muslim country by population, Islam was spread through the interactions between the indigenous peoples with Muslim traders and merchants. This is one of the many misconceptions that exist in Western society.

The Muslim Student Association is holding an event in hopes to clear up some of these misunderstandings.

On Thursday, Jan. 26, in the Grand Ballroom of the Student Center, speeches will be given by former Lexington mayor Teresa Isaac, and nationally recognized Islamic speaker, Brother Abdel Rahman Murphy.

Brother Abdel Rahman Murphy is a graduate of the University of Illinois at Chicago with a degree in teaching of English and religious studies, and is currently pursuing his master’s in counseling and family therapy. His Islamic studies background includes completing an Imam Certificate Program, designed for young leaders from America and the UK in Makkah, Saudi Arabia, under the mentorship and training of qualified scholarship, as well as some time in Egypt.

Salman Jeelani

He has also completed some courses, in the classroom as well as individually, with scholarship in the U.S., studying traditional texts along with contemporary issues. It is with great privilege that the Muslim Students Association announces that

Brother Murphy will be speaking at its upcoming event.

Dinner will also be served followed by a Q&A session with Brother Murphy. This event is open to both students and the public, completely free of charge.

The Muslim Student Association would sincerely appreciate your attendance, as it will be a beneficial experience in educating oneself about Islam and the truth behind the misconceptions.

Aqsa Qureshi is a psychology senior and MSA’s vice president. Salman Jeelani is an international studies sophomore and MSA’s treasurer. Email opinions@kykernel.com.
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Brian Rose

When they talk about entitlements, you frequently hear quips such as, “our kids won’t see Social Security” or “these programs won’t be here for our children.” There is no spin on it.

There is no right or left to the fact that these programs are growing at an unprecedented rate and have the potential to present our generation with massive deficits in state governments, and even larger deficits on the national level. The question for so many Millennials is, “Why isn’t anyone doing anything about it?”

We are currently on track to become the most educated generation that will likely have to deal with the most over-regulated private sector and job-crippling tax burden if we do not do something about these crises now. As the most diverse generation in the history of America, our differences and opinions will vary more than any other.

However, the entitlement issues we face are inevitably something our generation will come together on. For those in power, it’s time to listen.

Facing national elections every two years and a presidential election every four years, it seems the campaigning never ends. Our generation currently stands as the most unemployed group of people in the nation. This is a generational crisis.

When an official takes a stance on entitlements, the accusations from opponents in their elections and members from the other party start flying.

It has become so bad that after the Republicans took back the U.S. House of Representatives in 2010, there was a proposal to President Barack Obama from Speaker of the House John Boehner that if he would take on entitlements with them, it wouldn’t be used against members during the election.

Politicians understand the problem. They also understand one major factor: the elderly vote. They understand that these baby boomers are retiring and they vote.

Well, I have news, we vote, too.

Pew Research points out that after four decades of low voter turnout, 2008 showed the turnout gap between voters younger and older than the age of 30 was the smallest it’s ever been.

In 2008, 23 million young adults voted. A Rutgers study on Millennials found that in just three short years, by 2015, our generation ages 18 to 38 will comprise nearly one third of the electorate.

With social media running through our veins, we can get the word out quicker and more efficiently than any generation to have walked this earth.

It’s time for our leaders to take on the growing burden facing our generation. It’s also time for our generation to continue to be engaged and support young leaders who understand us better.

In 2010, Kentucky elected three new State House members under the age of 30.

People like Illinois congressman Aaron Schock, who entered the life of public service after having a discrepancy with his school board at the age of 18 and ended up in Congress by his mid-20s, stand as a model leader for this generation.

The Congressional Research Service reported in 2010 that Senators of the 111th Congress had an averaged 63.1 years of age. That’s 1.5 years older than the 110th and three years older than the 109th.

Accordingly, House members of the 111th congress had an average age 57.2 years of age. That’s 1.3 years older than the 110th and 2.2 years older than the 109th.

This trend is alarming. It’s time to replace the folks who won’t take a stand for our generation with folks who will.

I’m not saying we should throw the elderly off cliffs, like some rhetoric suggests, but I am saying our voice should be heard more.

Our vote counts just as much as the elderly — and one day we’ll have to make decisions on their retirements.

Brian Rose is a political science junior. Email opinions@kykernel.com.

Patrick Johnson

I remember very distinctly crying after the Cats were beat in the 1999 Regional Final by Michigan State because I thought that UK was supposed to be in the National Championship game every season. The joy of watching UK basketball is something that can be agreed upon throughout our great state. Regardless of sex, race, political affiliation or religious beliefs, a UK victory is cherished by all.

It is forever engrained in our culture, and will continue to bring people together that would not have any reason otherwise to communicate. Some of the greatest friendships have been developed as a result of celebrating a good win, and the team brings great national and even international exposure to our state. I will bleed blue for the rest of my life, and my children and grandchildren will have no choice but to do the same.

Because of this deep reverence for the university and its teams, I want UK to be the best in every area — both on and off the court.

That’s why I, and many students on campus, have been urging the university to ramp up its investments in clean energy options that will mean cleaner air for Kentuckians and make UK a leader in the SEC. Already many of our peer institutions, including Clemson and North Carolina, have committed to stop burning coal on campus because it poses real health threats to students and the surrounding communities.

In Lexington, the university is doing great work investing in geothermal energy for our new dorms and ensuring they’re built with the top efficiency technologies to save energy and money. It’s time for UK to go all the way by ramping up their clean energy investments to include clean, healthy and renewable options like geothermal and solar energy for the entire campus that will move us off coal and make us a national champion in more than just basketball.

The reality is that coal is not cheap. The negative health impacts from depending on coal including cancer, heart disease, lung disease and severe asthma attacks cost Americans $100 billion in health care costs and 13,000 lives annually.

According to a 2009 study performed by Dr. Michael Hendryx, a professor at West Virginia University, the human cost of the Appalachian coal mining economy outweighs its economic benefits. This doesn’t account for the environmental destruction as a result of this industry, including thousands of miles of streams irrecoverably covered, hundreds of mountaintops blown off and species diversity that will be forever lost.

Coal is horrible for this state and is holding us back from building a prosperous clean energy economy for the 21st century. Right now, clean energy jobs and businesses in Kentucky are growing at a faster rate than jobs overall.  General state job growth was 3.6 percent last year, while renewable energy and efficiency jobs grew by 10 percent.

This trend is expected to continue. Additionally, studies show that with a greater mix of efficiency and renewable energy, over the next decade Kentuckians’ electric bills will stay the same or be even lower than they would otherwise.

I am very proud of the UK students who are continuously demanding that our school take progressive measures to move off coal on campus toward clean energy solutions and cut ties with the dirty and irresponsible coal industry.
In support of this movement, the Sierra Club sponsored the UK-Arkansas basketball game to bring awareness to the clean energy movement across the U.S. and show their support for UK basketball and the amazing students and fans on campus.

As a generation, we have the responsibility to not leave our children and grandchildren with a world that is decimated by extractive industries, and have sustainable energy solutions in place. As a state, solar and geothermal are viable options virtually everywhere. The political will to help get these programs in place must happen, but the feasibility does exist.

In mountainous regions of Appalachia, wind feasibility studies have also showed very promising results. The University of Kentucky has the opportunity to be on the cutting edge of these technologies, and I hope they listen to the student movement in future decisions.

I commend the Sierra Club for supporting this cause, and showing that Big Blue Nation is supportive of the end of the reign of coal in this state. Make your current students, alumni and state proud. Let’s move toward a sustainable future. Go Big Blue.

Patrick Johnson is a natural resources and environmental science senior and the Kernel’s assistant opinions editor. Email opinions@kykernel.com.

If the bill passes the Senate and then the House, popular websites and companies such as Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, and Google will face shutdown if they do not control users and remove links and content the entertainment industry finds objectionable.

The bill is called the Protect IP Act (PIPA), and is aimed at reducing the number of illegally downloaded movies, television shows, and songs. Most of the companies that offer these types of services are outside US jurisdiction. The bill allows the government to block access to infringing domain names without due process. Corporations could sue to have links to infringing websites blocked from search engines, blogs, or forums. The government and corporations would have the power to block US advertisers and payment services from giving money to infringing companies.

In short, PIPA gives the government and the entertainment industry the power to censor and shut down any website they feel is harmful to the industry.

But PIPA will not work. Users would still be able to access any site by entering the IP address instead of the domain name in the address bar. Any person savvy enough to illegally download a movie or television show from the Internet will have the technical skill to type a few numbers instead of words.

Instead, PIPA would cripple small, young Internet companies because the bill’s language is ambiguous enough to allow copyright holders to sue any business they feel is not censoring well enough. These lawsuits would bankrupt start-up companies and kill Internet innovation. Further, popular social media sites could become targets for the actions of their users, and users who post copyrighted material face up to five years in prison for each infringement.

Finally, the government would be interfering with the infrastructure of the Internet. Experts believe a government with the ability to regulate domain names would lead to less security for users.

The government and corporations already have the tools to fight piracy and copyright infringement. They have the power to remove specific content, sue companies that provide services that may be used for copyright infringement, and to sue journalists for talking about how to infringe copyrights.

Companies and the government would have no problem stretching their new powers. The Recording Industry Association of America has used laws designed to fight large-scale copyright infringement to sue children as young as 12. The entertainment industry even sued to ban the first VCRs and MP3 players.

In response, Web sites most likely to be affected by PIPA staged a protest yesterday. Wikipedia and Reddit blocked access to their sites to show what PIPA could do to them. Google changed its logo in silent opposition. Craigslist put up a front page with a message that said, “Corporate paymasters, keep those clammy hands off the internet!”

These protests have spurred a few members of Congress to drop their support of PIPA, but more needs to be done. The American people need to send a message to Congress that reactionary tactics that would cripple small businesses and existing social media just to sell a few more DVDs is not a step in the right direction. It is a step toward censorship and a restriction on free expression.

The Internet allows for grassroots political campaigns, allows protest organizers to overthrow fascist regimes, and is the platform for one America’s fastest-growing and successful economic sectors.

The Internet should stay the way it is. Contact your national representative to oppose PIPA and any similar legislation. Tell Congress that censorship is wrong and the Internet is more valuable than the entertainment industry.

Do it before they can censor you.

Roy York is a second year law student at UK. Email opinions@kykernel.com.

Whether your goal is eating healthier, quitting smoking, exercising more, or something else, there are ways to improve your odds of sticking to that New Year’s resolution. According to Lori Molenaar, psychiatric nurse practitioner at University Health Service, it is important to set realistic goals.

“You should set measurable, specific goals,” Molenaar says. Rather than just saying, “I’m going to quit smoking,” make a plan to reduce cigarette use by X number of cigarettes per day; or set up an appointment, by a certain date, with a tobacco cessation specialist. These smaller steps are better than an abrupt, life-altering change.

Remember that behavior change takes time.  Molenaar encourages students not to give up immediately if they slip up. A new behavior takes practice before it becomes the new routine. There will be pitfalls, so you should have a plan for how you are going to eat healthfully while watching the Super Bowl, or what you are going to say when a friend asks you to have a smoke.

Molenaar also recommends having a healthy replacement or substitute in place. For instance, if you smoke when you are stressed out, you will need a new stress management tool to put in its place.  Instead of thinking about the foods that you are avoiding, consider the healthy foods that you can add into your diet like fruits, vegetables and seafood.

Consider enlisting the help of a professional by scheduling an appointment with a University Health Service health educator or clinician to discuss possible replacements for the behaviors you are trying to change. With a little bit of planning, you can be successful in sticking with your New Year’s resolution.

Jill Kindy is a registered dietician at UHS. Email opinions@kykernel.com.

By now, most Facebook and Twitter users know to keep their profiles private and to not publish their class schedules or information on their whereabouts.

Even posting or tweeting about a party is enough to tell some online “friends” that your apartment or dorm might not be occupied. And with GPS technology, it won’t be uncommon for “friends” to soon be able to tell exactly where you are or aren’t.

But what about when you are actually online and browsing the Internet or perusing the latest video clip that has gone viral?  If you don’t have your browser privacy parameters set properly and if you don’t run several clean-up utilities daily, your online “comings and goings” may not be as private as you think.

If you haven’t taken the time to control the way your browser handles web or browser cookies, odds are there are many websites and organizations that know where you’ve been browsing.

Many websites use cookies to track web browsing behavior (much like some companies use sensors under the carpet to track how and where consumers walk through their stores.) And, if someone is “sniffing” the network, particularly on unencrypted public Wi-Fi networks, cookies can be intercepted and read by others.

Worse yet, cookies can be tampered with and such cookie poisoning can be used to make an online attack persistent. Then again, you may actually like the way some websites use this data. Some websites use cookies to remember your preferences and others use them so you don’t have to log back in the next time you visit.

On the other hand, if you don’t like the idea of websites maintaining a profile of your browsing habits, what’s a digital native to do?

If you have a Windows system, you may already run Disk Cleaner and Disk Defragmenter regularly. However, if you really want to clean up after yourself, you may want to download CCleaner.exe from Piriform.com (unfortunately, the download actually takes place from FileHippo.com).

CCleaner is freeware that can remove unused files from your system, allowing Windows to run faster and freeing up valuable hard disk space. It also can clean traces of your online activities, such as your Internet history and local shared objects, or flash cookies.  Additionally, it contains a registry cleaner.

Another piece of free software that cleans off your Windows system nicely is Privacy Mantra from codeode.com. It is a little more technical and detailed to set up than CCleaner, but it also does a great job.

Mac users may want to take a look at the Safari browser extension called Safari Cookies (available from safariaddons.com). Like CCleaner and Privacy Mantra, it will remove non-favorite cookies, including flash cookies, when you quit Safari.

Firefox users may want to consider adding on “Better Privacy,” which also removes regular and flash cookies when you close the browser.

Unfortunately, installing these additional pieces of software onto your computer may be necessary if you truly want to browse anonymously or if you don’t like the idea of others being able to tell where you’ve been online.

Note that neither UK nor the author make any implied or expressed warranty about the aforementioned software. Like all downloads, if you decide to use any of the aforementioned software, do so with caution and at your own risk.

Jan. 28 is Data Privacy Day. See dataprivacyday2011.org for additional information.

If you have questions about computer security or have ideas for future topics, please feel free to contact me at Michael.Carr@uky.edu.

Michael Carr is UK’s Chief Information Security Officer. Email opinions@kykernel.com.

Kathryn Gardner

As the president of UK’s Society for Mining, Metallurgy and Exploration and a mining engineering senior, I feel it is important for people to understand the modern mining industry.

The coal industry has had dark days in the past, tainting public opinion of the industry as a whole, yet many do not realize those days have passed.

Regarding safety and environmental stewardship, mining companies have set high standards for themselves, often above and beyond minimum requirements stated in regulations.

Mining, while in progress, is ugly, as are all construction projects. However, modern reclamation practices continually strive to improve the end product. Groups such as the Appalachian Regional Reforestation Initiative extensively research new methods of improving previously mined land.

Reclaimed mine sites in Appalachia are prime for development, creating locations for housing, airports, hospitals, nursing homes and recreational areas. Elk have been re-introduced onto reclaimed sites with outstanding success.

Many claim the coal mining industry is corrupt without understanding the extensive regulatory requirements to even start a mine. Regulatory agencies, such as the Environmental Protection Agency and Kentucky Department of Natural Resources, do not allow companies to ignore laws.

Mining as a whole is one of the most heavily regulated industries in all areas, from environmental impacts to the safety of miners.

Coal is disputed from mining to its use in power plants. Beyond electricity, most do not realize coal is mined for other reasons.

Our steel industry relies on metallurgical-grade coal. As for steam coal, many claim its use in power plants around UK put students at risk and are pushing for other forms of energy. These forms of energy have their place and are growing in importance as new technologies continue to improve efficiency and lower cost.

Sources of energy such as geothermal, solar, hydroelectric and wind have a growing place in the future of energy, as well as nuclear power, though they cannot completely replace fossil fuels.

According to the International Energy Agency, the world demand for coal is only going to grow in the next 20 years; some say it may even double.

The future of energy includes coal; there is no question about that. Rather than block new coal- fired power plants completely, the government and the EPA should embrace these new plants.

Technology such as carbon capture and storage is less expensive than nuclear, wind or natural gas, and has fewer emissions than older coal fired plants.

According to a National Coal Council study, requested by the Department of Energy, replacing the outdated power plants would not only reduce carbon emissions in accordance with President Barack Obama’s plans, but would also create up to 800,000 permanent jobs.

Currently, according to the International Energy Agency, petroleum is the No. 1 contributor to greenhouse gas emissions at 42 percent, with coal placing second. Modernizing power plants would only help these numbers.

Coal is a controversial subject on and around UK’s campus. However, the modern mining and electric industries are taking steps to improve practices for what is going to be an essential component of the global economy for the foreseeable future.

Kathryn Gardner is a mining engineering senior. Email opinions@kykernel.com.

Brian Hancock

As finals week began last semester, most students were stressing over a borderline grade which would certainly save or ruin their respective lives. Elsewhere in Lexington, however, a more important conflict had just commenced.

On the morning of Dec. 13, President Eli Capilouto announced he would not support state funding for the proposed renovation of Rupp Arena, as it would directly compete with state funding for campus building projects.

Several hours later, Lexington Mayor Jim Gray said he would still ask the General Assembly in the upcoming legislative session for approximately $20 million to study the possibilities of reinventing Rupp Arena.

Within the week, a task force had approved the renovation plans. Required approval by the city of Lexington and the Lexington Center board are both expected to occur by the end of this month. The entire project may cost more than $300 million.

As a current junior, I listened to two years of nothing but the “Top 20” vision promoted by former President Lee Todd and the Board of Trustees. Capilouto has been a breath of fresh air to students, as he has made on-campus renovations his top priority. On Sunday he sent an email to faculty, staff and students explaining his latest attempts to achieve state funding.

Campus disrepair can no longer be ignored, as many classrooms buildings and dorms have become woefully outdated, and the student center is in need of a major facelift as well. It seems rather untimely that the mayor of Lexington would decide to compete for the very same funds Capilouto is lobbying for in order to restore our aging campus.  Jim Gray called this competition a “healthy thing,” that would encourage both sides to present their arguments more effectively.

As a UK student, I don’t find anything “healthy” in deliberately detracting funding from our university’s much needed restoration project, especially if the money will go toward an arena that already pulls in surplus revenue and is functioning completely properly.

As students of UK, it is our job to applaud Capilouto for his vision to improve our campus over the next several years, and at the same time to realize that a functioning campus is far more important than the latest and greatest college basketball arena in the nation.

We do not need to pour in $300 million so that our basketball arena can put the KFC Yum! Center to shame.  We do need to invest in our students and our campus, where more than $1 billion in construction is needed in the years to come.

If you are a student at UK and truly believe that renovating Rupp is the right course of action, then I suggest you reconsider why you are here.

Brian Hancock is an English junior and the Kernel’s assistant opinions editor. Email bhancock@kykernel.com.

The U.S. burns more than one billion short tons of coal per year. That’s around 5.5 billion pounds of coal per day.

This is, according to the Union of Concerned Scientists, “the single biggest air polluter in the U.S.” and is ridiculously toxic, leaving exorbitant amounts of arsenic, lead, thallium, barium, cadmium, chromium, mercury and nickel in our water and atmosphere.

In fact, according to a 2007 peer-reviewed EPA study, living next to a coal ash disposal site enormously  increases your risk of cancer or other diseases, and people drinking water contaminated by coal deposits have chances as high as one in 50 of getting cancer.

And, guess what: we have two (outdated) coal plants right here on campus.

The weird thing is, you would think that as soon as scientists discovered that burning coal causes cancer (which happened in the 1770s), our politicians, those who are supposed to be watching out for the best interests of their citizens, would have quickly stopped such an exceedingly deleterious system.

But politicians (and energy executives) don’t care about your silly “science”; nor do they care about that “public health” nonsense. All they care about is money. Simple as that.
If this weren’t true, explain why, from October 2009 to April 2010, coal company executives and lobbyists held at least 33 White House meetings, three times more than any meetings that included scientists or environmentalists.

If this weren’t true, explain why, according to an October New York Times article, mining-related interests (mainly Murray Energy Corp., the National Mining Association, Alpha Natural Resources Inc. and Arch Coal Co.) have paid more than $2.8 million in lobbying just federal candidates in this election cycle alone, and why electric utilities companies (namely the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association, Exelon Corp., Dominion Resources, and American Electric Power Co. Inc.) have spent more than $5.9 million.

If this weren’t true, explain why Massey Energy alone, from 2005 to 2010, was cited for 38,997 violations (that’s more than 21 per day), and punished for almost none of them.

Now, some declare the answer is “clean coal” (their new favorite buzzword), but realize that this is a pure pipe dream at best — and a pure lie at worst. In July, Popular Mechanics (in absolutely no way an environmentalist magazine) published “The Myth of Clean Coal,” declaring that “mythical” clean coal makes “little economic or scientific sense,” and that “coal will never be clean.”

There’s no way around it. “Clean coal” is an oxymoron.  A “clean” coal factory is akin to a lung-friendly cigarette; they don’t exist — both go against their very nature.

Yet there’s still insipid incessant dogmatic mantra. Yes, “coal keeps the lights on,” but that’s no justification. This is only the case because it’s “cheap” to blow off the top of mountains — with little regard for surrounding inhabitants — and extract it. This is only because of gargantuan government subsidies — not just overt handouts, but more clandestine tax credits and breaks. (On a federal level, this estimated around $17 billion between 2002 and 2008; on a state level, the Kentucky state government’s net subsidy to coal is $115 million). This is only because “cheap” is defined without considering any externalities, without considering that it is poisoning all of us.

When one considers the real cost of coal, one sees that it is certainly not cheap, not by any stretch of imagination.

In fact, a 2010 Harvard Medical School study found coal costs our country $500 billion per year — and $74 billion per year in public health burdens in Appalachian communities alone.

Plus, just because an aspect of our society currently relies on a system of extreme oppression and plain maleficence in no way justifies it. The argument that “coal keeps the lights on” and, ergo, we need it, is the exact same argument used by slave holders 200 years ago: “Slavery keeps the food on the table.” Slaves grew their food, prepared it, served it — the list goes on. Without slaves, they would have surely starved. Consequently, slavery should have continued, right?

WRONG. Because slavery, just like coal mining and burning, is atrocious.

And all of this doesn’t even touch on how the search for cheap coal has ravaged and raped Appalachia; nor does any of this address climate change, the largest problem of all, for it affects the survival of life on this planet — and the fact is, coal is the largest single source of greenhouse gases in the U.S.

So, what can we do? We must hold our politicians accountable. Why do they think it’s OK for filthy-rich coal executives (pun intended) to make millions of dollars per year at the expense of the people and their health and well-being? It isn’t. We must refuse to be quiet and obediently take our poison. We absolutely must move beyond coal; it’s in all of our best interests.

Ben Norton is a music, Spanish and film studies sophomore. Email opinions@kykernel.com.

All of the aforementioned rights, along with several more, have one very important document in common: the Bill of Rights.

Our Founding Fathers fought to get us where we are, and they did it without Google or Twitter feeds keeping them constantly up-to-date with the outside world.

Our country’s earliest politicians debated for days at a time in the sweltering summer heat before they could agree on a new Constitution. Even so, an additional document was needed before all of the delegates could agree.

Given the way the document even came to exist, it almost seems appropriate that it would have taken a few hits along the way.

There is no better example right now than the Occupy Wall Street movements taking place across America.

Perhaps one of the best examples of the protesters’ rights being trampled on occurred in California, a liberal protesters’ haven.

Students at the University of California, Davis, were peacefully assembling when campus police approached them with pepper spray and began spraying.

The students calmly sat with linked arms while the police doused them in burning chemicals.

In the case of UC Davis, I applaud the students not only for standing their ground, but for calling out the police on their dishonorable actions and yelling “shame on you” as they carried students away.

These students obviously know their rights. The other millions of college students all across America on the other hand … them, I worry about.

It does not surprise me that a young group of protesters would be at least somewhat aware of their constitutional freedoms, considering it appears to be a topic they care about and are willing to be arrested for.

But what about the average college student?

What about Joe Smith? What does he know about the very document our country was founded on?

I don’t think anyone would be shocked to find that many people in their early to mid-20s would not be able to pass a U.S. citizenship test.

All too often, I overhear a disgruntled peer complaining about how someone has wronged them.

Maybe in honor of the anniversary of the ratification of the Bill of Rights on Dec. 15, I will build up the courage to turn around and ask them this: “How can you expect to be awarded the protections of a document when you don’t have the slightest clue what your rights really are?”

We are fortunate enough to have constitutional rights; we should at least have some comprehension of what they are.

Without this understanding, nothing is stopping future incidences of police brutality, and other infringements on our rights, from happening again.

What would our first 10 amendments be without knowledge? Well, that may just be a “Bill of Wrongs.”

Latara Appleby is a journalism senior and the Kernel’s photo editor. Email lappleby@kykernel.com.

I first and foremost want to commend the writer’s urgency in believing that we need to invest in energy production techniques that are much more environmentally responsible. However, I differ very strongly with him on the direction with which we need to take to accomplish this goal.

In the discussion regarding coal, we somehow have forgotten an extremely important fact. Coal is a finite, nonrenewable resource, meaning we have limited supply remaining. Economically, why would we invest billions of dollars in upgrading technology that is going to have to be completely overhauled anyway?

Why would we want to place that tremendous burden on future generations when we could begin investing in a clean, renewable energy portfolio now?

The comments regarding technological advancements improving the operation of coal-fired power plants is accurate. Less toxic pollutants are being directly emitted into the atmosphere as a result of scrubber technology. However, these toxic pollutants are not disappearing. They are simply being stored at very high concentrations in coal slurry impoundments. Slurry spills in Martin County, Ky., in 2000 and the TVA disaster in 2008 are great examples of the devastation that this “technological advancement” can provide.

Solutions are readily available; we just have to muster the political will to make them happen. The United States can take notes from European governments as they alter their subsidy systems and encourage innovation with economic incentives. Germany is the leading solar-producing country in the world, yet has less solar potential than the state of Kentucky. If we as a country decide to invest billions of dollars in clean energy subsidies, we can make a feasible step towards providing future generations a sustainable energy solution. Not only is solar power a viable alternative, but areas in the mountains of Eastern Kentucky have proven to be extremely compatible for wind energy.

We need to build a diversified economy that allows for energy to be prevalent without compromising our health and the mountains that we so deeply cherish. A sustainable energy future will do just that.

Patrick Johnson is a natural resources and environmental sciences junior. Email opinions@kykernel.com.

I reference the Arab families negatively affected by the 21st century United States occupation, not those native peoples’ families affected by 17th century U.S. occupations.

On the day that Christmas presents were being bought for American children, the New York Times reported that “six Afghani children were among seven civilians killed in a NATO airstrike in southern Afghanistan.” NATO claimed they were chasing “insurgents” when the trigger was pressed for the bombs to rain upon these remote Afghan villages.

Adbul Samad was an uncle to four of the children killed, which were each between 4 and 12 years old. He disputes this narrative of the attack, claiming that he and his relatives “were working in fields near their village when they were attacked without warning by an aircraft.”

Even though this extra-judicial murder, or “collateral damage” as the state likes to sanitize it as, is becoming increasingly common, I doubt it was the rain these folks were hoping would come from the sky that day.

Two months after President Barak Obama received the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize, the United States secretly ordered an attack on Yemeni people with several cruise missiles. Six months later, a June 7 report by Amnesty International finally uncovered this incident. Cluster bombs were used in the attack, which killed 44 innocent civilians, including 14 women and 21 children. One question here should be that of Yemeni state sovereignty with regard to this secret cluster bomb sprinkling. What if Yemen aerially delivered a few cluster bombs throughout central Kentucky?

These two instances, though merely regarded as “accidents” by the U.S. and NATO, operate as elaborative microcosms of U.S. policy toward that region. It’s difficult to justify Afghani 4-year-olds as “insurgents,” and thus worthy of intentional American sponsored surprise death, so of course, really formal apologies and heart-felt PR statements were issued. War-state protocol for damage protocol demands this when such statistically significant murder is regrettably made internationally visible regardless to whether those children’s parents feel “we’re real sorry” actually suffices. If those were your children, would a quick sound-bite comfort you?

But, the greater immorality of formal United States’ foreign policy lies even deeper. The Yemeni and Afghani bombings are only known because international agencies found large amounts of physical evidence on top of information received through eye witness accounts that demonstrated high death tolls, and those being undeniably civilian.

An even steadier number of people are killed on a daily basis throughout the region, but are seemingly deemed largely disposable in our national news discourse because of their ascribed label of “terrorist” or “militant.”

Yet in October, a new study released by the “Afghanistan Analysts Network” showed these terms to be “so broad as to be meaningless.” The report also notes that for every alleged “militant leader” killed in nighttime raids, eight other people also die. The median estimate of non-U.S. death tolls in the Middle East over the last decade hovers more than a half million.

U.S. officials were quoted that same week in the Washington Post as saying the US had effectively defeated Al-Qaeda, rendering it “operationally ineffective.” Asked what exists of Al-Qaeda leadership, U.S. intelligence personnel said the network had been “reduced to just two figures whose demise would mean the groups’ defeat.”

This is the trick of Uncle Sam’s see-saw argument that justifies the endless war-state of the 21st century. On one side of the balance, the U.S. demeans Al-Qaeda as “operationally ineffective” to assure the public some kind of good will soon come out of these decade-old multi-state, multi-trillion dollar wars.

While on the other side of the see-saw, both war-industry pocket-padded political parties assert the terrorist networks will stay a threat for many years to come.

Republican Newt Gingrich tried to make the case in a CNN debate recently for the expansion of both the Patriot Act and the Afghanistan war because otherwise, the terrorists, whomever “they” are, will “set off a nuclear bomb in an American city.”

In justifying a new frontier of war, Democratic administration officials “now assess Al-Qaeda’s offshoot in Yemen as a significantly greater threat.” CIA officials also want to expand the murderous drone video game in Pakistan where this “effectively inoperable” group inhabits, because otherwise, “letting up now could allow them to regenerate,” an anonymous US official stated.

So, if I am getting this right, Al-Qaeda is not a threat, but we have to keep bombing children and “militants” so they don’t “maybe” pose a risk in the future. And this is, as if, such weekly woops-we-killed-your-children occurrences doesn’t justifiably encourage and create animosity toward the far-distant American drone controllers of these armed unmanned robots flying in the sky over Afghanistan, Yemen, Pakistan, Iraq and recently Libya and Somalia?

So during these upcoming holidays, use these or any other of the countless examples of actual U.S. foreign policy to talk with relatives when this topic hopefully gets brought up.

Around me, empty rhetoric was spouted in high volumes this past Thanksgiving.

When the commercials started, the conversation started. “The U.S. just has to invade/bomb/stop/control/sanction (Country X),” someone usually says.

Hearing that, I wanted to make sure others could present evidence to counter such sound bites, often manufactured by mega-media corporations that are also largely intertwined with the war-industry.

If the stories of the above “collateral murder” don’t equip you enough for dialogue, you should refer to the Wikileaks’ video of that same name, or refer to the collateral damage of cluster bombs which, according to the Council on Foreign Relations, involves the indiscriminate scattering of “hundreds of bomblets over a large area, but with limited accuracy and high failure rates.”

While more than 100 countries have signed a treaty banning their production and use, the U.S. not only refuses to sign, but also stop using cluster ammunitions.

Even further, I should probably elaborate on the most recent and even more dangerous international convention the United States is helping to ruin — the Durban COP17 UN Climate Talks. For now though, as the U.S. says with regard to halting runaway climate chaos, “lets just talk about that some other time.”

Tyler Hess is an agriculture junior. Email opinions@kykernel.com.

Tasteless, boiled to death, just a pretence to a real meal (meaning the pints of beer at the pub to follow) — these are just a few of the many slogans. I heard all the horror stories before I moved to the United Kingdom. These rumors seemed almost as prolific as those regarding the rainy weather and lack of dental hygiene. What was a foodie like me going to do? Luckily I’ve made some interesting discoveries thus far.

My first weekend in Glasgow, I was introduced to the concept of a traditional “roast.” The origins of this UK tradition date back to Yorkshire during the Industrial Revolution, but the concept remains the same today — food, family and friends. Two of my new friends and I got together on my first Sunday afternoon and started the cooking process. A couple hours later we had one roast chicken, a tray of roasted carrots, potatoes and parsnips, sage/onion stuffing and a bowl of brown gravy. Similar to Thanksgiving in the U.S., there never seems to be enough gravy. But alas, the tradition has continued every Sunday since, and I always end my weekend with a warm and happy tummy.

But let’s face it, you just can’t talk about food in the UK without talking about fish-and-chips. Now I’m a lover of just about all kinds of seafood, from ahi tuna, to oysters on the half shell, to a good po-boy sandwich. But fish-and-chips in the UK are honestly in a league of their own.

Fish-and-chip shops are scattered around just about every street corner in the UK, and are usually housed within a somewhat dingy-looking diner, with a single person running the joint. Don’t let it scare you away. Place your order, and a slab of freshly fried haddock (a popular tender variety of white fish) along with a two-person serving of thick-cut steak fries are laid down on a couple layers of white paper.

Common offering at this point is “salt and sauce?” If you agree, a coating of white dust and brown goo is slathered over your meal before the paper is wrapped up like a little knapsack and handed over to you.

Unlike the ketchup and tartar sauce that would accompany such a meal in the U.S., here the aforementioned goo is what the locals call “brown sauce.” Brown sauce is a vinegary salty concoction, not like any sauce that you’d find in the U.S. Fish-and-chips just isn’t the same without it.

As any true-blue American, I often find myself with an insatiable craving for Mexican food too — chips and salsa, tacos and a margarita. Struck with the same craving last month, I blindly assumed the regular variety of such restaurants I was used to in the U.S. would be found here in the UK. I learned a good lesson in geography. Such restaurants were hard-pressed to be found.

And what about the grocery stores? I hate to inform you, but I’ve yet to see a single tortilla chip in my time here. Bye, bye nachos. Luckily I have found a substitute.

The UK is home to a large base of amazing Indian cuisine due to cultural influx of Indian immigrants into the area. I’ve happily discovered chicken tikka masala and spicy curries. Naan bread is readily available in every grocery bread section, and a variety of Indian cooking sauces occupy the shelving where you’d expect the salsa should be. I still get occasional hunger pangs for chimichangas, but when in Rome (or Glasgow) …

But what is the real food adventure for someone living in Scotland? It is none other than haggis.

Haggis is mixture of minced organ meats (lungs, heart, liver) with oats and seasoning, boiled in a sheep’s intestines, and commonly served with neeps and tatties (aka turnips and potatoes). Now granted I probably shouldn’t have told you what was in it before you have the opportunity to try it someday, but haggis remains a long-standing part of Scottish culture, dating back to the ninth century.

In fact, a holiday is celebrated every January where people all over Scotland get together to recite Address to a Haggis, to celebrate the life and poetry of Robert Burns. In addition to several formal toasts and copious amounts of drinking, the star of this meal is of course, haggis. No trip to Scotland is complete without a taste of haggis, in my opinion.

But if eating it doesn’t sound like your game, you could always try to break the world record in the sport of ‘haggis hurling,’ which currently stands at 217 feet.

So the lesson I’ve learned? Don’t believe the rumours. Food in the UK far exceeds its reputation – in taste, tradition, and creativity. And hey, the weather and teeth aren’t too bad here either.

Jordan Covvey is a 2010 Doctor of Pharmacy graduate from the UK College of Pharmacy. She is currently a Ph.D. candidate and Fulbright-Strathclyde Postgraduate Scholar at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow, Scotland. The monthly column “From one UK to another” will follow her experiences and cultural education across the pond. For more information on the US-UK Fulbright Commission, visit fulbright.co.uk.

If I had a dollar for every time I heard some variation of that phrase uttered while I was still in Kentucky, I would be a very rich lady.

Before I came to UK in 2009, my greatest aspiration was to travel to the Middle East, as I was immensely interested in the culture, politics and language of the region.

My college career granted the goal legitimacy, so once my sophomore year rolled around, I immediately began planning my trip to Egypt. To make an incredibly long story short, I am neither in Egypt nor Syria — a place I had also planned to study in after Egypt was taken off the table.

Nevertheless, despite the revolutions and uprisings that occurred in the region last spring, my stubborn streak won and I landed in Jordan on June 17, 2011, prepped for the experience of a lifetime. Granted, I know the phrase “experience of a lifetime” sounds incredibly cliché, but let me assure you — it’s not. Since the wheels of my plane landed on the tarmac, my life was forever transformed, and I can honestly say I am no longer the woman I was when I left my home state many months ago. There are numerous aspects of my travels that I could discuss, from the mouth-watering food to the fact that Arabs are the most hospitable people in the world to the breathtaking natural beauty of Jordan.

However, there have been one or two lessons I’ve learned, especially gained through my internship, that have continued to shape my ever-evolving outlook on the region and world as a whole, and I feel it is incredibly important to relay these applicable lessons to my fellow Americans and Kentuckians in order to broaden minds and perspectives about the Middle East and North Africa.

After spending two months of intensive study at an Arabic instruction in the summer, it was time for my attention to shift towards my actual field of study — political and social development. Two major acts of fate then happened to pass my way:
First, I was asked to be the research assistant for the chair of the Human Rights and Development program at the University of Jordan, Dr. Zaid Eyadat. Then, my study abroad program, AMIDEAST, helped coordinate my internship with Dr. Malek Twal, the Secretary General of the Ministry of Political Development and coordinator for the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations project in Jordan.

I cannot even begin to describe how grateful I am for these two distinct but wonderful opportunities, nor can I explain the enormity of my knowledge amassed. From my first-hand experience gained at the Ministry of Political Development, to just living in the region, I can truly say that immense change is sweeping the region, and the people thirst for more.

I’m not talking about the toppling of authoritarian regimes. Instead, I’m referring to the shifting tide in the sentiments of citizens from all backgrounds, as they begin to demand dignity in their lives. The lesson to be learned is that change — whether it be positive or negative — is inevitable, and supporting anything else in the Middle East and North Africa is a foolhardy mistake?

Jordan is an interesting example in the region, as it is currently undergoing and implementing intense governmental reform movements, from constitutional changes to electoral reform, in order to primarily avoid the absolute chaos its neighbors are experiencing.

Today, I participated in a meeting led by a representative from the United Nations Development Programme, who discussed electoral reform in Jordan. I witnessed a profoundly deep discussion on true reform, and what it means for Jordan and the region as a whole. Realistically, there is great disconnect from the discussion of ideas to their actual implementation.
However, the government is also a rational actor that acknowledges the fact that Jordanians have desires for political and economic reform, and if those goals are not reached in a timely manner, we can all say goodbye to Jordan as we know it.

Part of the change demanded is a reevaluation of the historical relations between the Middle East and the “West.” As we live in an increasingly globalized world, there is no longer the need to treat everything foreign with great suspicion and distrust, as doing so actually causes more harm than good.

The United Nations Alliance of Civilizations project seeks to shatter all preconceived negative and false stereotypes cultures have of one another, and it fosters action rather than mere dialogue.

It supports legitimate acts that are implemented in each participating state, as well as global initiatives of understanding, focusing on areas such as education, youth empowerment, media and other important societal aspects.

The message the UNAOC tries to instill is that the various cultures of the world are not so incredibly different from each other and that more importantly, mutually advantageous relationships should be cultivated. Jordanians and Americans are not so incredibly different. For example, Jordanians are obsessed with incredibly sweet (yet scalding hot) tea, just like Kentuckians hold a deep affinity for their coma-inducing liquid sugar which is sometimes referred to as tea. As with the American youth, the Jordanian youth can’t stop watching “How I Met Your Mother.”

The differences between cultures are incredibly vast at times, but if we all can open our minds and, more importantly, travel abroad if possible, then everyone could realize the many similarities between the peoples of the world. Change is in the air, from the protests at Tahrir Square to the Occupy Wall Street movement. If my generation decides to take hold of this moment and implement rather than demand positive societal transformation, then the future is looking pretty bright after all.

Gwendolyn Schaefer is an international business and geography junior. Email opinions@kykernel.com.

The UK Writing Center has been helping UK undergraduate, graduate and faculty writers for nearly 30 years. We have a long and proud history of committed service to everyone at UK who wants to improve their writing, including undergraduates at all levels and abilities.

This semester, we have added innovative visual and multimedia presentation services (ukwrite@wordpress.com), and we offer group consultations for students in courses requiring small-group composition and communication projects.

Students can make appointments online at web.as.uky.edu/oxford/ or walk in to the Center (on the 5th floor of the William T. Young Library) to see if a consultant is available.

In most cases, a consultant is open for students who drop in, but near the end of the semester, consultant slots fill up with appointments and walk-in students. So we encourage our clients to schedule online or to call us (859-257-1368) if their time is limited.

Writing Center consultants include peer tutors (gifted and trained undergraduates), graduate students and faculty from the Division of Writing, Rhetoric and Digital Media. Consultants tailor each session to the individual needs of the client.

The consultants engage their clients in a conversation about their writing and visual designs, asking productive questions and teaching them strategies for revising their own writing. Often, the consultant works as much on a client’s critical thinking as on their writing skills (in fact, we find that these skills are closely aligned).

Sometimes we model effective strategies of reading and analyzing a topic; sometimes we work on sentence-level revision. If a writer needs help with proofreading or grammar, then our consultants address those issues, too.

Consultants encourage writers to return to the Center so that they can continue making progress — and many writers become regulars. Our goal is to provide all our writers — but particularly the undergraduates who come to see us — with a solid foundation for life-long learning and practice in writing and design.

At times, our idea of what we do at the Center and how we go about doing it may be different from what a faculty member or student expects.

Writers who are new to the Center sometimes expect us to proofread their work for them. If our clients want a proofreader or an editor, we refer them to a proofreading service.

We view our role as helping writers improve their own writing. That’s why we clarify our role as consultants by explaining — in positive and thoughtful ways — how we can help and why we work the way we do. The truth is that anyone at UK who needs help with any writing issue, including learning how to proofread, will find help at the Writing Center and will learn how to become a better writer.

The UK Writing Center’s 30-year record of serving students is only the beginning.

We have launched new services (face-to-face and online) to consult with students on multimodal composition and communication projects across the curriculum.  And we are always looking for ways to improve.

The Writing Center consultants meet together regularly to talk about the feedback we receive, so we encourage anyone who has a concern or an idea to contact us.

Write me and I will respond to your messages. My email address (judithgprats@uky.edu) is included on our UK Writing Center website (wrd.as.uky.edu/writing-center), on our online scheduling home page (web.as.uky.edu/oxford/) and on our Facebook information page (facebook.com/UKWritingCenter).

I want to hear what you have to say, and I am interested in all kinds of ideas for making our Writing Center the very best resource it can be.

Judith Gatton Prats is the UK Writing Center director. Email opinions@kykernel.com.

Kelsey Caudill

I have to admit, I felt unloved and overworked as I skimmed pictures of my friends out on the town and read everyone’s status updates about going out, while I violently clicked back and forth between a blank document and my incessantly changing news feed.

But the pity party didn’t stop there. Prolonging my procrastination, I creeped my ex-boyfriend’s wall, only to find that the recent college dropout (who is now working at a gas station) is pursuing an 18-year-old Hooters employee. What ensued was a night full of sad country ballads free from academic progress.

So I did the unthinkable. Unable to put my personal issues aside to focus on my studies, I deactivated Facebook.

While I felt immediate satisfaction when so many friends asked me why they could no longer find me on the world’s largest social network, I’m quite certain I’m not the only college student who is regularly distracted from her studies.

A 2011 study found that 96 percent of college students use Facebook, according to OnlineEducation.net. Of that figure, 20 percent of students who Facebooked while studying received lower grades, although 79 percent of students do not believe a correlation exists between the time they spend on Facebook and their grades.

Perhaps student views are reflective of a 2010 study titled “Predictors and Consequences of Differentiated Practices on Social Network Sites,” which found no correlation between students’ grade point averages and the amount of time they spent on six social networking sites, including Facebook.

Researchers concluded that “neither (Social Networking Sites) usage intensity nor social practices performed on these sites exhibit[ed] a systematic relationship with academic performance.”

While I do not denounce the results of this study, I would like to suggest that the unit of measurement researchers examined leaves room for error.

Although grade point average is an accurate measurement of student performance, it cannot account for the mental or physical strain Facebook places on students.

Sound confusing? Let me break it down. I am an avid user of Facebook. I log in every night while working on my homework, and I have the Facebook application downloaded on my iPhone.

Regardless of the countless hours I have spent on Facebook over my college career, I have maintained a 3.89 GPA. The variable is not my grades; it’s my study habits, my ability to focus on assignments, my tendency to procrastinate and my lack of sleep caused by the extended amount of time I am studying and Facebooking — simultaneously, of course.

I will do whatever it takes to get an A, even if it means staying up all night working on a paper because I couldn’t stop refreshing my news feed, subconsciously looking for ways to avoid my assignment. So whether or not Facebook is jeopardizing my grades, it’s testing my sanity.

Statistics show that I am not the only student who spends more time studying her friends’ lives than her homework assignments.

“Facebook addiction” is searched online 350 times more than “cigarette addiction,” according to OnlineEducation.net. Clearly, the inability of students to separate their social lives from their studies is becoming a problem.

When I search the corridors of William T. Young Library looking for a place to study, for example, the majority of the students I pass have Facebook pulled up on their laptops. Not to mention most of us have the application on our smartphones.

Really? It’s not enough that we can like, tag, comment and post with just the click of a mouse? Apparently not.

Why else do we receive texts messages notifying us of our Facebook activity if this is not the case? Why do we also receive e-mails with these same notifications? The entire system is so repetitive and self-absorbing.

If I had the answer to questions like these, then perhaps Facebook would not be distracting college students.  Maybe Mark Zuckerberg will create an application in the future that helps students get their study on while Facebook stalking.

Until then, I suppose I’ll go reactivate my Facebook while I contemplate further solutions.

Kelsey Caudill is an English and journalism senior. Email opninions@kykernel.com.

Brandon Goodwin

This Thanksgiving I made the not-so-astute observation that all the adults were thoroughly connected. Not to each other in deep, enriching family conversation, but rather connected to the Internet.

I noticed my parents surfing on Facebook, uploading photos of family in tryptophan-induced comas. When I couldn’t find the UK basketball game on TV, my grandpa easily navigated to the live stream feed online, commenting on the high-resolution picture quality in contrast to other games he watched earlier that week.

I have four sets of grandparents. All of them have a presence on Facebook. Two sets use Skype fluently. One grandpa has more apps on his iPhone than I do, and I’m kind of an app freak.

But I shouldn’t have freaked out.

Baby boomers accounted for more than 25 percent of all active users on social networking sites in 2010, according to a study from the Pew Research Center. In 2008, people over the age of 50 accounted for only 11 percent of all cyber-socialites.

Compare those numbers to the percent of college-age students, which took a significant decline from 28 percent in 2008 to 16 percent in 2010.

The exact demographic Mark Zuckerberg targeted when founding Facebook has become a minority on it.

And if your grandpappy is still wired on coffee instead of to a keyboard, don’t expect that to last. DoSomething.org launched a campaign to educate grandparents on how to use new technology called “Grandparents Gone Wired.” It plans on rewarding little Jimmy down the street from grandma to teach her how to use her laptop in exchange for sweet iTunes gift cards and other rewards.

With the average Facebook user more likely bound on an express train to a mid-life crisis than an entry-level job opening, perhaps it is time to re-evaluate how youth and young adults view social media.

Cartoon by Christopher Epling

Growing up with social networks, students have become acclimated to the perception that they were a part of an exclusive club. Now, that club is family friendly.

When teachers and community members would preach to me in high school about “keeping my online profile clean,” I took the advice half-heartedly. I didn’t know who was looking at my profile, unless they liked or commented on a status. If they didn’t like it, oh well.

This is not the case anymore. My family serves as a constant reminder that I’m being watched every time they like a post I know they don’t understand.

Since then, I’ve realized our use of social media should be maturing with our age. But even if it does, social networks are getting older faster than we are.

Remember, Facebook is not a party house. It’s your mammaw’s house. And every day is Thanksgiving.

Brandon Goodwin is a journalism junior and Kernel’s web director. Email bgoodwin@kykernel.com.

Actually, you are not good to drive, you do need a ride, you aren’t sober, you will get caught and it does matter — a lot.

Drinking and driving is something that many people have been adversely affected by, whether indirectly or directly. The potential consequences include trouble with the law, injury or death.

On Aug. 1, 2009, the annual Tom Sawyer Triathlon in Louisville, Ky., was on the agenda for the day. Kenneth Yates had something else in mind. It was a sunny, unforgettably sad day.

The triathlon started off well — people were finishing the mile-and-a-half swim and moving on to the 14-mile bike ride. In the middle of the ride, however, many of the bikers came upon a scene that was hard to forget. On one side of the road people were concentrating on pedaling their fatigued bodies on their bikes, but on the other side of the road there was an ambulance and a body underneath a tarp. It was awful. You could see the blood spilling out from underneath the tarp.

So what happened? That morning, Yates was so drunk and high that on a four lane road, he managed to hit a biker taking up the most miniscule portion of pavement he could. He hit the man on the bike, killed him on impact and then fled the scene in his car — a car that still had the bike embedded in the windshield. After he got pulled over by police, he ran to his mother’s house, which was located nearby. His own mother had to turn him in to the police.

The saddest part of this story is: this biker had done nothing to deserve it. Another man had decided his fate when he woke up that morning. He had three children and a wife waiting for him to finish the race. And Kenneth Yates made sure he would never finish the race.

In 2009, there were a total of 791 traffic fatalities in Kentucky, with 239 of them alcohol related. Thirty percent of all fatalities were alcohol-related. That percentage is far too high. It identifies the number of people who will never see their mom, dad, brother or sister again. No one can honestly say they want that.

The scariest part of this incident is that if I had been a couple of miles ahead on the course, it would have been my life that was taken instead.

That’s why it is so difficult to sit back and see people getting hurt because of drinking and driving. It is never worth the pain. It is not right to risk someone else’s well-being because you want to drive while drunk. It just isn’t.

Decide your own fate, not someone else’s.

Kate Carpenter is a journalism senior and a designer for the Kernel. Email kcarpenter@kykernel.com.

Corey Hord

Public smoking bans are becoming the norm nowadays, but what bewilders me the most are the clouds of smoke lingering around UK’s two-year tobacco-free campus. If you’re anticipating fresh air on campus, then you better hold your breath.

Those of us who venture onto campus are almost certain to have some level of exposure to second-hand smoke. Non-smokers shouldn’t have to tolerate the 7,000 chemical compounds that cigarettes expose them to, not to mention the stench.

If you think second-hand smoke isn’t an issue, think again. Second-hand smoke is responsible for nearly 50,000 deaths each year in the U.S. alone. It can cause serious cardiovascular and respiratory diseases, including coronary heart disease and lung cancer, according to the American Cancer Society. And this is all happening involuntarily.

It’s more than a mere annoyance. The hazards of breathing second-hand smoke are well documented, but some advocates for smoking argue that restricting smoking from certain areas is an infringement on personal liberty.

This argument might find its ground in a form of ambiguous legislation, but the personal liberty of non-smokers often gets lost in the debate.

Are 50,000 deaths each year not loud enough? Don’t I have the right to venture to my classes across campus without having to evade clouds of smoke in the process? Where do non-smokers fit into this equation?

Legislation isn’t infringing on anyone’s right to smoke, only where they smoke. Each person has that right to smoke until it infringes on the non-smoker’s right to carcinogen-free air.

The University of California, Irvine, and Queen’s University, Canada, partnered to examine the relationship between smoking bans and second-hand smoke exposure.

In the research study conducted from 2000 to 2008, it was discovered that second-hand smoke exposure declined from 23 to 11 percent, whereas public smoking bans accounted for more than seven percent of that reduction.

What’s open to question is whether the smoking ban was implemented with any means of enforcement during the research period.

UK’s Tobacco-Free Campus Initiative has made similar strides since its implementation in November 2009. However, a lack of enforcement across campus is generating an environment of blatant disregard for this university bylaw.

Anthany Beatty, co-director of the Tobacco-Free Task Force, said no citations are issued to individuals for using tobacco products on campus.

Instead, the university has implemented a compliance model to encourage everyone to conform to the tobacco-free policy.

It’s a culture shift that motivates people to change their thoughts about tobacco products without the engagement of criminal consequences. But is a compliance model sufficient enough to shift the paradigm?

A compliance model isn’t an adequate response, to say the least. If UK Parking and Transportation Services implemented a “compliance model” to get everyone to conform to parking regulations, do you think that for a second people would comply? Absolutely not.

They don’t comply when there are consequences; why on earth would they comply without them?At this point you might be thinking that pushing the agenda for a tobacco-free campus is of the least importance for the university.

They have more significant issues that deserve the financial investments that are being designated for the Tobacco-Free Campus Initiative. And to a certain extent, you’re right.

UK invested public funds in a week’s worth of events that commemorated the two-year anniversary of its tobacco-free campus that is nonexistent because of the lack of enforcement.

Those are funds that could go to more pressing issues. On the other hand, the university must address the 50,000 deaths associated with second-hand smoke, especially when Kentucky is ranked highest in smoke-related deaths.

If we’ve learned anything from history it’s that people learn lessons the hard way.

That’s why the leaders of the Tobacco-Free Campus Initiative must replace the compliance model for a policy with actual consequences.

All universities across the U.S. are struggling to enforce tobacco-free policies, but that doesn’t mean UK can’t lead the way with an enforcement model that echoes across the nation.

I’m fed up with taking alternate routes on campus to avoid the popular “smoking areas.”

There’s no reason that I should be holding my breath for 30-plus seconds so that I can avoid the toxins of other people’s poor decision making. And I’m not alone.

The university is far from being tobacco-free and certainly has little to show for the last two years of this so-called initiative.

It’s time for directors Beatty and Ellen Hahn to quickly change that for future students. After all, it is their job to do so.

Corey Hord is a journalism senior. Email opinions@kykernel.com.

Amanda Powell

The Writing Center’s website says, “The Writing Center assists University of Kentucky students, faculty, and staff with the process of writing.” But it’s hard to assist when appointments can’t exceed 30 minutes.

As I walked past its office windows on a Wednesday evening, no tutors were working with students. Most looked like they were working on personal tasks.

At the entrance, the receptionist told me I needed an appointment, but only one spot was available at 8 p.m.

While I sat down to wait, the receptionist walked back to speak to the tutor I would be working with.

But instead of telling her that the next appointment arrived, she stood and had a conversation for the 20 minutes I was waiting.

When I could finally sit down with the tutor at 8 p.m., she told me to pick the most problematic section of my paper we could work on because my appointment was only 30 minutes.

To make matters worse, the tutor had no concept of time. She tried to wrap up early because she was staring at the clock on my computer that runs 10 minutes fast.

If the Writing Center is going to require students to have an appointment and only work with tutors for 30 minutes, other services should be offered.

The services at The Study peer tutoring program offer tutors six days a week without appointments, and students can stay for as long as it’s open.

How can students consider the Writing Center a proper program when we can’t even have our six page papers edited?

We are going to college at a reputable university; most papers assigned will be five pages or more.

Karin Lewis, the director of UK Academic Enhancement, said, “As stated in our mission, AE is student-responsive. Therefore, in order to provide new or expanded services, there must be a demonstrated need/demand.

So far, students are not coming to The Study requesting peer tutoring for writing. So, we have not pursued it further than the APP (Academic Preparation Program) and peer tutoring in the humanities, for now.”

What good is the Writing Center if you can only get three pages edited at a time?

Go to The Study and drop in a suggestion at the front desk that you want writing tutors who can give help on the spot. Or you can send an email to TheStudy@uky.edu.

We should be getting help from other students for however long we need if we’re the ones paying tutors’ salaries with our tuition.

I’m not willing to pay someone to do his or her homework when a student is waiting to get help; you should not either.

Amanda Powell is a journalism junior. Email opinions@kykernel.com.