Editor, the Gauntlet,
Re: “A party does not a protest make,” March 27, 2003.
I think Andrew Ross’ problem was that he went into the tent city with completely bizarre expectations. People camped out, tuition issues aside, because it was a fun thing to do on campus (why do you think it was such an effective gimmick for the tuition fight?). If you wanted to go to sleep at midnight and to have “quiet” hours, then you shouldn’t have pitched a tent. Yes, it sucks that your tent was spray-painted or that PIRG was so misguided in the distribution of their angst (but really, with so much hate and tuition in the world, finding appropriate injustices to focus one’s angst on can be hard, especially for the PIRG and especially when it’s angst-by-consensus). However, you shouldn’t condemn the entire event because you had a bad time.
You bitterness is of someone who was expecting people to go to class and then go to their tent and quietly go to bed. Have you ever been camping before? Did anyone you went with have fun? I suspect if they followed your strange perceptions of camping-etiquette, then probably not. If you didn’t want a tent city, you should’ve opted for a Motel Village, only a 20 minute walk away from the BOG meeting–which, by the way, many people who camped out all week were able to attend in full force.