Dear Editor:

Walking around campus and downtown, I can’t help but be frustrated at how wasteful everyone has become, especially during the current financial crisis. One of the most wasteful practices we spend money on is our addiction to bottled water. As an addict, I think nothing of paying $1.50 for water. But after re-evaluating my spending habits, I’ve realized how idiotic it is to pay for something that should be free. Thinking about how many bottles I consume a day and seeing how many are thrown away, I can’t believe how much this basic resource is taken for granted.

Despite our economic problems, it’s nothing compared to the millions of people suffering from the world’s water crisis. According to the United Nations’ Web site, 1.1 billion people, or 18 percent of the world’s population, do not even have regular access to safe water for drinking.

How can we complain about the standard of living in our own country without examining how other human beings are forced to live? We have all adopted a convenience lifestyle, and it’s hard to imagine that people walk seven miles a day to reach a clean water source when our access to water is unlimited.

By spending less on bottled water every day, we can keep some extra cash in our pockets and promote the conservation of water.

Lyndsay Elliott

senior public relations major

Dear Editor:

People who belong to the Student Recreation and Wellness Center face rules and policies that demean, offend and give Kent State University a terrible image of being very unfriendly, micromanaging and uninterested in good public relations.

I will be gone all of April, and I filled out the form to suspend my membership for that month. That would add a month to the end of the year for which I paid almost $300. I was told that I have to provide proof that I will be gone: tickets, reservation papers or gas receipts after the trip! I was shocked to be treated in such a manner. I asked if I had, say, broken a leg, could I suspend my membership and was told I would need a doctor’s note! What is this – grade school? (I am the wife of an emeritus professor and have been a member of the rec center for many years.)

The rec center also has another authoritarian policy that goes like this: You are allowed to forget your membership card one time only in a year. If you forget it again, you have to pay $8 for a single visit. Neither policy will win friends or contributions to Kent State. I do hope these policies will be altered and that the Board of Trustees is as offended by them as I am.

Diane L. Lewis

Ravenna resident