Letters to the editor, Aug. 31

Pedestrian safety awareness

While attending classes at UTEP during the summer, I was escorted by a dear friend who is also a student and happens to be wheelchair bound, from Union Building East to the Education Building. I was appalled at the dangerous route we endured. While in a wheelchair, he was forced to go between two rows of cars, in the Union East parking lot. The cars were parked so that both rows were faced with their backs toward the thoroughfare. That made it difficult for the drivers to view or see him. As we crossed the small intersection just southeast of the back of the Education Building we were almost hit by a car. The driver acted as though she had the right of way. I was on my feet and could move, my friend was less than three feet from the car as the driver cut in front of us. This experience forced me to consider the safety of our differently-abled student body.

 I am making a university wide request that everyone, at all times be aware of the safety of all students, all pedestrians, of our university. Let's start the year right! Safe practices at all times! Drivers, please be aware that not all students may move quickly, due to age, ability or vision. Let's have another safe Miner Year!!

Jeri Hallberg Harmon

Education graduate

Sodexho could do a little greener

Last week, the Prospector published an ad by Sodexho that read "UTEP Food Services Doing More to Be Green." While adding an unspecified proportion of organic vegetables and using recyclable dinnerware is certainly a good thing, I would like to offer Sodexho an even better tip: be more friendly to vegetarians.

Two years ago, when I worked at the Prospector myself, one of my colleagues wrote a piece titled "UTEP Lacks Vegetarian Options." I was a meat-eater at the time, so even if I could empathize with the dietary hardships my veggie friends faced on the UTEP campus, I just as easily forgot about that article as I took the next bite of my chicken mole burrito at the College of Business cafeteria.

Two years down the road, I call myself a vegetarian now.  Though one of the humble ovo-lacto sort, I understand better why that Prospector article was important, and how little has changed since then despite the occasional declarations by Sodexho in their ads in The Prospector and on their website.

In addition to organizations that actively promote vegetarianism (like Vegan/Vegetarian, Animal Activists and Environmental Advocates), courses like Ethics with professor Steven Best produce their share of people who each year try out the benefits of a healthier, more compassionate and more Earth-friendly diet for at least a little while. In the past year, three of my friends have gone vegetarian like myself, but despite the fact that the veg community is growing on campus, I can tell you that Sodexho does not make it easier on us.

I have read in the past that on other campuses, Sodexho has even agreed to cook vegan food with non-metal instruments for a resident Rastafari at one campus. Why can't they try a little harder to serve UTEP's vegetarians and vegans?

Even locations on campus like World of Wings and Delicious claim to have vegetarian options in their menu, but more often than not when you ask about them they tell you they don't have it.  Other places, like Chopsticks, do not have these options on their menu, and usually that means a longer wait that can make you late for your next class. One can only eat overpriced bean burritos (only in the morning, in limited locations and for twice the price offered at Taco Bell) for so long.

Isaac Perez Bolado

Senior political science major