No conflict in campaign for lighting plan

I’m perplexed by your October 25 editorial (“Teamwork necessary for public safety plan”). I agree with the sentiment of your headline and believe that’s what we’re seeing in action – teamwork. As your front page story reported, everyone involved – the university, the Student Government Association, the city, the city-university partnership and Senator Giannetti – is pushing for the same thing: state help for improved lighting near the campus.

There aren’t two competing plans. There is a phase one – focused on streets between Route 1 and the College Park Metro Station, which has been funded, and a phase two – focused on Northgate, which all of us hope will be funded in the next year.

The locations of the first phase of lighting improvements on College Avenue, Knox Road, Columbia Avenue and Calvert Road have been approved on by the State Department of Transportation and the city, based on discussions that included the university, Giannetti’s staff and the SGA (under its prior leadership).

The second phase of improvements, if funded next year, would be near Northgate. That’s what the city-university partnership endorsed last month. According to your news article, that plan is supported by the SGA and Senator Giannetti. It was suggested by the university and backed by the city. What we have here, I think, is a case of vociferous agreement.

The first round of lighting improvements will be made as soon as the contract details are completed and PEPCO does the work. The potential second round at Northgate depends on the state accepting the united recommendation from the university, the city, the partnership, the SGA and Giannetti.

I see cooperation, not conflict.

Jim Rosapepe

Chairman

College Park City-University Partnership

Democratic, Steele coverage far from equal

I’m curious to find out who made the decision on the placement for Wednesday’s story on Lt. Gov. Michael Steele announcing his candidacy for the U.S. Senate. It’s interesting that when Martin O’Malley announced his bid for governor, The Diamondback ran the story above the fold on the front page; when Doug Duncan announced his gubernatorial campaign, The Diamondback ran a story below the fold on the front page; but when Steele announced his U.S. Senate run, The Diamondback ran a story on page 7.

For O’Malley’s announcement, the story was accompanied by a handsome photograph of O’Malley. The story on Duncan’s announcement was set off with a picture of Duncan. The article on Steele’s announcement was joined by a picture not of Steele, but of a “clash” between a Steele supporter and a protester.

Additionally, on the occasions of the two Democrats’ campaign announcements, The Diamondback printed columns or letters that supported the candidates. But on the same day it reported Steele’s announcement, it printed a column from one of the student protesters denouncing Steele as a hypocrite.

The ombudsman criticized the disparity between O’Malley’s above-the-fold story and Duncan’s below-the-fold story. I hope he takes note of the numerous dissimilarities between the coverage of Democratic gubernatorial candidates and that of the Republican Senate candidate. And I hope this doesn’t foreshadow favoritism-riddled coverage in the months to come.

Nathan Burchfiel

Senior

Journalism

Placement of Rosa Parks article appalling

As an African-American student at the university, I was appalled, disgusted and distressed yesterday when I picked up my copy of The Diamondback.

An article about the death of civil rights groundbreaker Rosa Parks was degradingly relegated to page three of the newspaper, while an article about the death of Jim Paradiso, owner of the College Park restaurant Ratsie’s, was displayed prominently on the front page.

The campus and all its admission brochures are filled with grandiloquent assertions regarding the university’s commitment to fostering, for minorities, an environment conducive to learning, yet the perplexing phenomenon that Parks’s death cannot even make the front page of the university newspaper renders these claims unequivocally suspect.

Wednesday’s front page included an article on the long-defunct band Hanson, yet it was six articles and a page of advertisements before Parks’s name was mentioned.

Can it be that her death is of secondary relevance in comparison to the new golf classes available at the university? This embarrassing placement of the Parks article is an insult to every minority on this campus, to me and to the memory of Parks. I call upon the staff of The Diamondback to apologize to the student body for this gross miscalculation of informational priority immediately, and to never make such a demeaning mistake again.

Ademola O. Sadik

Freshman

Finance