Forum editor’s column was meant as a joke

Dear Editor:

I’m writing in response to Ashley Nordin’s letter (“Forum Editor is the ‘voice of evil'”) in response to Steve Schirra’s column “When I die, where will I go?” First off, calm down, the world is not out to get you and neither was Steve when he wrote this column. No one is attempting to challenge your personal beliefs.

It was a satirical piece, that is why it was in the Forum. It was just a joke. Also, the entire world does not believe in Hell as you do. There are religions out there that do not base their faith on a hell or heaven and do not even recognize the two. Now tell me, are those people hopeless and sad? Or do they just not count to you and your religion? I can completely understand how you would be offended if this article were meant to be taken literally, but it wasn’t, so calm down and move on.

Cristen Labovitz

Senior earth science major

Graduate wants degree without inaccuracies

Dear Editor:

When did our institutes of higher learning stop caring about the students? When did undergraduate students stop being as important as graduate students? What happened to customer service? These are the questions that I have for Kent State.

After attending the Commencement ceremony Aug. 20, I was so excited to finally receive my diploma. That diploma is a symbol of the education I worked so hard to attain, and I was heartbroken to see that there was a glaring error on it. I’ve just earned my Bachelor of Arts degree in Sociology, but the university only printed “Bachelor of Arts.” This is unacceptable to me.

When a person decides that they want to be whatever it is that they want to be, they find the best school in the country for it and apply. When a person invests years of their life and tens of thousands of dollars in their education, they should have a diploma that can be framed and displayed in a place of honor. I spent the better part of Friday morning trying to get the university to fix their error only to be told, “That’s life, get over it.” I listened as they said that my transcripts would reflect what my degree was in, and calmly pointed out that I can’t hang my transcripts on the wall. A diploma, be it college or high school, is a symbol of a great accomplishment. I just wish mine was accurate.

Erin C. Gadd

Class of 2005