1. Dear members of ‘The Spectator’ editorial team, I am writing with regard to the article ‘Veterans in the classroom’ in today’s issue of your paper. This article seems to be emblematic of an extremely worrying trend at VSU and in American higher education at large, namely the unquestioning and uncritical acceptance of military perspectives and military values in higher education. In a democratic society with a supposedly clear separation of powers and institutional spheres, it seems worrying that military values—hierarchy, authority, unquestioning obeisance of orders, the use of violence, etc.—are intruding into institutions of higher learning like VSU, apparently with no questions asked. In a society already characterised by an ever-growing punitive ‘carcereal archipelago’ and in an already crime-plagued and violent town like Valdosta, questions ought to be asked as to the role of military personnel in criminal justice programmes, instead of just uncritically offering a description of their activities, as in your article. Moreover, in a situation in which the USA is already engaged in two illegal wars of conquest abroad, questions ought to be asked at institutions of higher learning such as VSU as to the role which the military has come to play in this society. The total lack of awareness of those issues reflected in your article is deeply troubling to me. It seems to contradict the very mission of this university. Yours sincerely, Dr. Daniel Nehring Assistant Professor of Sociology 2 Dear Mr. Johnson, Ms. Green’s November 12th Article on “Veterans in the Classroom” was recently brought to my attention, and I am at a loss for words. ...

Ashli Rastegar Senior english major “I don’t have a credit card, but I plan on paying off student loans with monthly payments until I die.”   Brittany Bell Sophomore philosophy major “My parents pay for everything and I have Hope.”   Levi Hibbard Freshman mathematics major “I only have a little debt from student loans. I only took out one ...

Rant Unfair Registration  Registering for classes last week based on classifications continues to be a problem on the VSU campus. The day students are allowed to register for classes is determined by how many hours the student has acquired in previous semesters. Student registration should be determined either by GPA or attendance. I have no sympathy for students who may ...

 The holiday season is the most wonderful time of the year; that is fully agreed. However, it seems that America has began decorating and planning for Christmas earlier and earlier, sometimes starting as early as the end of October. There have been Christmas decorations in almost every single store I have set foot in and Christmas music blaring over the ...

 First things first: congratulations to the VSU Police Department for apprehending the guy who had been violating the sense of personal safety of the women of Valdosta. Also, kudos to the student who gave a timely report and accurate description that resulted in the flasher’s arrest.  As for the rest of the student body, I suggest that you carefully remove ...

Attention all Blazers. This editorial is for you. This is for the 3,764 students and staff who picked up a copy of last week’s issue. This is for every member of the student body who scoffs at the errors and complains about the content to friends instead of to the staff. This is for our audience.  We try to keep ...

“Are you concerned with the amount of debt you will be in after graduation from student loans or credit cards, and how do you plan on getting out of it?”   Ashli Rastegar, senior, English major  “I don’t have a credit card, but I plan on paying off student loans with monthly payments until I die.”   Brittany Bell, sophomore, ...

Out of all the things to complain about here at VSU, a big one is parking. “I have to park so far away.” “I get parking tickets all the time.” “I can’t sign up for my classes because of all of my unpaid parking tickets.” We’ve all made some sort of complaint like this, but our suggestion now would be ...

Wake Up Call Halloween may be over, but the true nightmare continues to lurk in the shadows and slowly make its way toward unsuspecting college students nationwide. No, it isn’t Freddy Krueger or Jason Voorhees (though you shouldn’t rule them out just yet). I’m talking about the unavoidable, unfeeling monster known as financial responsibility.  Currently, most college students have a ...

RANT  Why do we have so many fountains on campus that are hardly ever in use? The only time I see the fountains on is during the summer, around the time of freshman orientation. I would like to think that the fountains are not just there to hook potential students. I know we were in a drought a few years ...