From War to Toasters

As many students of UAF probably don't know, the student government puts what they're doing online at www.asuaf.org. And what these "elected" officials work on can be ridiculous.

Like pop tarts? Yeah, who doesn't? Then you'll be happy to hear that Senate Chair Patrick Frymark has decided it would be a good idea to spend money on a toaster oven.

So why is this bill so important to Pat? It seems that the location that sells pop tarts in the Wood Center doesn't have a toaster. So the toaster "to be" will be placed, "within the ASUAF office," according to the bill. Isn't there a toaster upstairs in the Wood Center? I guess the stairs are a bit much to climb for a toasted pop tart.

Go ahead and read senate bill 165-016 online. It's really well written, if you can keep yourself from laughing.

Let us thank Senate Clerk Andrea Devers, for taking the time to write out senate bill 165-043, titled, "Bellum non Sanus." The bill may be short but was definitely to the point.

The purpose of this bill is, "to create a new bylaw 201.4," which would read, "201.4 To declare war by 2/3 vote." Admittedly this was suggested by some unnamed student, but come on, are we actually considering giving ASUAF the authority to declare war?

Hopefully the recent election will bring some change. If you happened to actually vote and saw the ballot, there was only one seat in question, Seat P. The Sun Star made an effort to build a nice spread that would get names to faces, but half of those running didn't bother to show up to the scheduled interview. This, among other things, caused the infamous "Shit List" by Sun Star Editor Casey Grove.

There must be something else the senators of ASUAF can spend their time and money on. Maybe they could declare war on USUAA for that $1 crap. Man, talk about poor decisions made by student senators.

Ken Livingston

It should be noted that the problems with the Senate photo shoot were the result of a miscommunication. -Ed.

Sleep Deprived

My name is Erik Johnson, and I am currently residing in Wickersham Hall. I am a senior who, like many other students, is starting to prepare for a slew of finals next week. I am also not alone when I say that it was exceedingly difficult to sleep last night due to snow removal that was ongoing throughout the night.

Last night I was returning from an intramurals game when I noticed heavy machinery moving snow around the parking lots in front of the Patty Center. This has been a frequent sight in recent history, so I thought nothing of it. It became a concern of mine when I tried to go to bed that night, because at 1 a.m. the front-end loaders have moved up to the region around Wickersham and Eielson Halls and continued to scrape the roads, periodically backing up with deafening BEEPs that sounded like an alarm clock ringing even through closed windows. I read for a while as I waited patiently for the work to cease or to move elsewhere on campus, perhaps to West Ridge where nobody is trying to sleep. Finally, at 3:30 a.m. the work stopped and there was quiet. This quiet was shattered an hour and a half later when the work resumed. I was once again prevented from sleeping due to snow removal-where this snow was coming from I have no idea since the area had been thoroughly scraped and scoured when the snow fell about a week ago.

Around 5:30 a.m. my roommate, who also could not sleep, wondered about dragging some speakers into our room from the common area of the dorm and playing some sort of ambient noise. I had nothing better to do, so I went and created a music CD full of the sound of rain falling and thunderstorms and we played it for the rest of the night at high volume. We had to turn it up loudly enough so that the beeping of the trucks was barely audible-loud enough that I was worried that people next door would complain that they couldn't sleep because of the sound of thunder combined with beeping. When my alarm went off this morning, I had been sleeping for about two hours.

Somehow I turned off my alarm without any memory of having done so and slept through all of my morning classes.

I understand the necessity of maintaining the campus, of keeping the roads clear and safe for driving. However, I do not think it is appropriate to be engaged in this activity late at night around residence halls, ESPECIALLY the week before finals. Quiet hours in the halls start at 10 p.m. every weeknight, and quiet hours will be 24 hours a day next week.

The snow removal at night blatantly negates this rule, making it difficult to do homework, and nearly impossible to sleep. Please ensure that campus maintenance is conducted with consideration and forethought in the future, perhaps limiting snow removal around residence halls to the early evenings (after traffic is reduced but while people are not trying to sleep). Ideally, please also reduce the volume for the notification that the machinery is backing up if it's going to be used at night. There are no ambient noises the warning need compete with, and there is no reason that someone in Cutler needs to know that a front-end loader is backing-up down by Stevens.

Thank you for your action in this matter,

Erik Johnson

The Sun Star received a copy of this letter sent to Facilities Services, the chancellor and the Dean of Student Affairs. Ed Foster of Facilities Services later apologized for the noise and said they would be careful not to do it again. - Ed.