Sunday, January 10, 2010

Op-Ed Topec Ideas - Jake Lessie

Argument: BYU should keep the Cannon Center open longer on Sunday.
Reason: Students have nowhere to go to eat on Sunday, except the Cannon Center, and many times the hours are not convenient with the students
Claim: When I came back to BYU from the airport, I arrived to the dorms at 6:30, too late to go to the Cannon Center, and as a result was forced to go out to eat instead.
Assumption: It would be much more convenient to have longer hours at the Cannon Center on Sunday.

Argument: Helaman Halls should have longer visiting hours
Reason: With very short visiting hours, it gives fewer chances for students to socialize with each other
Claim: Many groups of friends at Helaman Halls are either all guys, or all girls
Assumption: With longer visiting hours, guys and girls will have more chances to become better friends

Argument: BYU should allow students to show movies in the lobbies of Helaman Halls
Reason: There are no other places to watch movies, besides in our dorm rooms, which can conflicts with visiting hours
Claim: When wanting to watch a movie with some friends, the only place we could watch it was outside in the cold.
Assumption: Less people will be sneaking into rooms to watch movies, and it gives students a safe and comfortable place to be.

5 comments:

  1. I really like your idea for the OP ED about visiting hours. I agree that BYU should extend the visiting hours because 4 hours a week really limits our ability to socialize. You could also talk about how extending the visiting hours would decrease the motivation for people to sneak into to other peoples rooms.

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  2. Both the hours and the movie argument are good. I dont live on campus but the argument seems very agreeable. Seems funny to ban movies in the lobby area. And with the visting hours i like Jordan's comment about the sneaking in. Give more hours, the students will be happier and more excited about follow the rules. Like the prohibition, when they made a law it was broken more often and by more people.

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  3. I agree with your idea about the visiting hours. It really is annoying that you can only plan to hangout in the dorms those four hours a week. You could also point out that most people are used to being able to go to friends houses boys and girls without time limits like that. It isn't bad for people to socialize in personal settings like dorm rooms.

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  4. Even though I don't live at Helemen Halls a agree 100 % about lengthening visiting hours to more than 4 hours a week. It was because of this that I didn't want to live at Helemen Halls. It's a good freshman experience to live in the dorms but both Heritage and Wyview are freshman housing and they offer better curfew/visiting hours. This curfew especially stinks during the winter time. In the fall semester students could simply go outside and mingle with friends but are kept inside during the winter.

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  5. Jake,

    A couple things to consider: what about the employees that have to work Sundays at the Cannon, how do they figure into the equation? I would consider asking someone who works in the Cannon Center why they have those hours, that way you can make a more effective argument.

    As far as the visiting hours and movies go, I think you need to reevaluate why these rules were set. I'm guessing no movies in the halls is for several reasons: one, keeping noise levels down for people trying to study in their dorms; two, not everyone watches or approves of the same movies and by playing it in the hallway you make it a public event that the school then needs to monitor. I have no idea what the visiting hours are, but think a stronger argument for extending them would incorporate academics. For example, people who need to hold study groups, club activities, etc. Remember that we are making this argument to a university, so we need to get in the benefits to students not just young singles.

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