Editorial: Holiday wish list

The holidays are an excellent time to wish for things. This time for giving indubitably doubles… The holidays are an excellent time to wish for things. This time for giving indubitably doubles as a time for dreaming about what you’d like to be gifted.

We at The Pitt News give the University the gift of daily campus news along with an enjoyable serving of opinions, arts, entertainment and sports. In return, we’d like to make our holiday wish list known to the University — just in case you want to send some warm and fuzzy love back our way this holiday season and next semester.

To start things off, we’d like a ski lift to operate from upper campus to the Cathedral. Speaking of the Cathedral, how about adding another 250 feet or so to the top of it? We’d like to make it the tallest academic building in the world — which is currently the Moscow State University Building in Russia. And you know that rumor about getting to leave class if your professor doesn’t show up after 15 minutes? Yeah, we wish that were a real rule.

On a more serious note, we’d like University administrators to open a dialogue about an alcohol amnesty policy — which would protect underage students who are seeking medical attention while under the influence of alcohol. Given the climate of college in general and the tendency for students to binge drink, it only makes sense to at least discuss it.

In addition, we think the University should open its financial records. Because we pay tuition and are therefore Pitt’s customers, we should know where our money is going at all times. For example, the University should disclose information on coaches’ contract extensions since their salaries are some of the highest on campus. Financial disclosure would also help justify tuition raises. The students who weather the price hikes deserve to know they’re worth it.

As far as campus safety is concerned, we’d like students to be quickly made aware of all serious crimes on and off campus. The Emergency Notification System should be used to achieve this.

We also have a few small and simple housekeeping issues we’d like to address. First, we think the escalators in Posvar should be more reliable. Next, we would like the toilet seat lids to fit the toilet bowls in the Cathedral. Awkwardly sliding off the toilet is not fun. And finally, victory lights for the basketball games would be nice.

But our wish list is not just for the University and its administrators.

From students, we simply ask for more voting and civic engagement — including being informed on current events. Reading our paper or others would be a great start.

For the Student Government Board, our expectations are a little higher. We would like the Board to be our voice on an alcohol amnesty policy as well as on rising tuition costs. More Board members should also come through on their projects, compared to previous years.

Above all, we wish for world peace. Well, and for more students and businesses to take out ads in our paper so perhaps we can one day get a raise.

We hope YOUR holiday wish lists get granted this season. Happy Holidays.