Think of the chinchillas
I was saddened to read about “Lola,” the pet chinchilla “Jill” keeps in her South Campus Commons apartment. As a person who takes care of two chinchillas herself, I completely understand the emotional bond that people develop with their pets. However, in all circumstances, the pet’s well-being and safety must supersede a person’s desire to take care of the animal. By nature, chinchillas are extremely active and playful animals. They need at least an hour of supervised out-of-cage playtime a day and ample amounts of space to be able to run, jump and explore.
Though I don’t doubt that Jill tries her best to provide her chinchilla with the care and love she deserves, I am especially concerned about the fact that she occasionally takes Lola to class with her when her resident assistant is due to inspect her apartment. Chinchillas need to be kept in draft-free conditions of 60 to 70 degrees Fahrenheit, and assuming these inspections occur regardless of weather conditions, it seems to me that this poor animal has possibly been outside in hot, cold and windy weather on the way to lecture. A loud lecture hall is also no place for a chinchilla, whose hearing can easily be damaged by loud noises. This combination of unsafe weather conditions and loud environments may lead to stress, which can cause the chinchilla to pull out its fur in frustration. I know this because my first chinchilla Shirin was adopted from such an environment: a small student apartment at a large university where pets were not allowed. Four years after her adoption, she still has a bald patch from the stress she suffered.
I sincerely hope this article did not encourage anybody else to keep any unauthorized pet, especially a sensitive exotic animal, in a confined apartment. It may seem like a rewarding situation for the student, but it’s unfair to the animal.
Asma Maryam MohseniSeniorPsychology and sociology
Existing textbook swap options
Andrew Friedson’s solution to the “textbook crisis” is worthy of being considered, even if his personal proposal is not truly original. CampusBookSwap.com is a free service already currently available through various campus Public Interest Research Group (PIRG) chapters. More than 250 schools are participants in the program, including this university and several of our peer institutions. Campusbookswap.com uses a bulletin board system to help buyers and sellers find each other. It also has a simple search feature to allow students search through the books others have posted.
While Friedson dismisses this existing system, I think it is something that must be seriously deliberated on. The university is fortunate because it has an active PIRG chapter here that receives thousands of dollars through the allocation of student fees. This is where a partnership between the Student Government Association and MaryPIRG can finally offer a credible alternative to the textbook status quo. The SGA was very successful in making sure professors turn in their textbook lists on time during the fall semester, and I firmly believe a concerted effort will ensure that a service such as a free, student-run online book exchange will be more widely available and used by university students – even if it is only one part of the overall solution that includes ensuring professors are punctual in submitting their textbook requests and ISBN numbers are fully disclosed.
At the end of the day, students will have more choices and save more money. What more can you ask for?
Matthew VergheseSGA Academic LegislatorEngineeringJunior
Statistical blunders
In the April 2 article entitled “Thieves targeting Jeeps on the campus,” The Diamondback published a graph showing how the number of car thefts on the campus has fallen in recent years. While this graph is otherwise useful, I was surprised to notice that the last data point is labeled “2007 (YTD).”
This is a problem, since all the other numbers on the graph are measurements of the total number of car thefts reported on the campus for a given year. The last point, however, is clearly a measurement of something completely different – the number of car thefts in the first three months or so of this year. Clearly, this value is not directly comparable to any of the other numbers of the graph, and should not be on it. A casual viewer looking at this graph might be confused and could easily believe that the number of car thefts this year has fallen dramatically from last year, which is not the case.
More care should be taken to avoid these sorts of statistical errors. I expect to see ill-designed graphs and charts from major news outlets, which seem to be incapable of getting basic mathematics correct, but not from a student paper at a major research institution. The Diamondback surely has access to educated people capable of avoiding such mistakes. Sadly, this is not the first time I have noticed a graph in The Diamondback that I found to be lacking, but I hope it is the last.
Jared StephenSeniorAstronomy, mathematics and physics
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