Letters...

THE LETTERS PAGE is your forum of discussion. Please make your submissions legible to persons other than yourself. All letters are printed verbatim including spelling errors. Deadline is Monday before 5:00 pm. Let- ters may be left at the SU office in the Barn, The Gem office Rm.01 Utility Bldg., sent through campus mail, or sent via VAX mail to account GEM.

COULD IT BE... SATAN?

To the Editor:

I’ve made a deal with the Devil! He said that his control was so great that I couldn’t overcome it, but that he’d put me to the test if I wanted it. He said that if I could get all females in America to throw down their pants and come out with their hands up by Thanks- giving, he’d have all nations

SUZUKI AND SCIENCE

Dear Editor:

In last week’s issue of the Gem, there was an article by . James Connolly covering Dr. David Suzuki’s talk at UPEI. It quoted Dr. Suzuki as saying, “Science has to show that current ideas are wrong, and that only truth will stand the test of time.” I recall Dr. Suzuki stating that more than 50 percent of the material in science text- books are wrong, and that it doesn’t make sense for stu- dents to study incorrect ma- terial incessantly. Also, he stated that one has to like na- ture, including ugly insects, to be a great scientist.

What he says may be true for some fields of sci- ence. But, as a whole, I think his statements about science have done a disservice to the understanding of science. As Nobel Prize laureate Richard Feynman said, “The basis of a science is its ability to pre- dict. To predict means to tell

what will happen in an ex-°*

periment that has never been done. We must extrapolate the experiments to a region where they have not been done. If we do not do that, we have no prediction.” And no science.

What is science? The as-

tronomy textbook by George”

O. Abell states: “It is the tes: ng that is the part and parcel of science. Science

is not just a collection of

throw down all their weapons for the good of Christmas. But I believe that the forces of good are greater than those of evil. Does this community agree? If so, does the 1611 King James Bible

say so? And if not, can you .

reason out why evil exists as

ADMINISTRATION PUNISHES

Dear Editor,

In the November 19 edi- tion of the GEM, I submit- ted a Letter to the Editor which discussed the rights of the students when criminal charges are brought against them. Unfortunately, I failed to research the topic exten- sively, and there are a few distinct errors.

Throughout the letter, I made reference to the ‘Sén- ate Cominittee’. I have since learned that there is no such committee. The decisions that were made were done by Mr. Jim Griffith, Head of Student Services.

Secondly, there was, in fact, a crime committed on campus that involved the University. The students in- volved took the stolen items onto campus before they were caught by the RCMP.

Thirdly, in Mr. Griffith's decision, I stated that the students

- were. initially evicted from

-probation was actually only

Dear Editor,

On my behalf, and that of MAPUS, I would like to express our thanks to Stu- dent Services, Student Union and the President’s Office for their contributions towards the cost involved in send- ing representation to the An- nual Atlantic COPUS Con- ference, St. John Campus of UNB, Nov. 6, 7, 8th.

I would also like to thank MAPUS for sending me as a representative.

Yours truely,

> 66 . + . : ad Paula Gauthier Journalism: a profession whose business it is to

explain to others what it personally does not

a challenge to good? To help, understand.” — Lord Northcliffe

consider that if reincarnation isn’t true, it wouldn’t matter about the evil if we had only one life. But eternal life “is” the bible.

Wayne John-son

16759 Meandro Ct. San Diego

Derrick Webber, Editor-in-Chief

Ian Mollison, Interim Production Editor

Derrick Cameron, Advertising Manager

Darrell Cole, Sports

Karen Cullen, Photographer Jill Noonan, Typesetter

residence, placed on proba- tion, and were given some hours of University work to perform. The decision for

James Connolly, Systems Manager

STAFF MEMBERS:

Robert Bodrog, Dawne Chappelle, Kaberi Dasgupta, Cora-Lee Des Roches, Anne Irving, Bobbi Sue Keating, David MacKinnon, Ian Mol- lison, Lisa Murphy, Claire Murray, Sam Okello, Ellen Perry, : } and Chris Vessey.

made after it was decided that they could stay in res- idence. Also, the probation only involves residence — it is not academic probation.

I still believe that Mr.

Griffith, in his powers as Head of Student Services, acted prematurely in giving his decision. I feel that provincial authorities should have had priority, and that no decision on behalf of the University should have pre- ceded the court date. I apologize for all mis- takes in the original letter, and I hope that this letter of clarification will present my position effectively to the en- tire University community.

This Week’s Contributors:

: Malcolm Gorrill, the History Society, the Bios, and many many more to numerous to print.

Deadline for submissions is Monday, 5:00pm

Please ensure your submissions are legible to persons other than yourself. We prefer typed and double spaced submissions and submissions on computer disk or through VAX mail. For legal reasons, all-submissions must include the author’s name and phone number. However, names will be withheld from publication on re-

Brian Cormier, - quest. A Concerned

Sophomore.

The GEM is published by the University of

knowledge, of figures and test tubes. It is an ganized method for explor- ing nature. Science involves three steps: (1) An obser- vation or an experimental result is noted; (2) A hy- pothesis is advanced to de-

Ore

‘scribe the result in terms of a

more general model; (3) The model is then used to predict new observations or the re- sults of new experiments.” If all scientists were to follow this spirit of scien- tific inquiry, they would not make false scientific theories

Prince Edward Island Student Union. Views ex- pressed are not necessarily those of the GEM

staff, the UPEI Student Union, or of anyone in. particular. ; ;

which, unfortunately, end up appearing in some text- books.

Students should rest assured that much of what you learn in many of the undergrad- uate science textbooks is correct. We should not waste time trying to show all current scientific ideas are wrong.

We reserve the right to edit submissions due to limitations of.space or taste.

If you are interested in learning more about your student newspaper, drop on down to our office anytime or come to our regular meetings Monday at 6:00pm.

Our office is buried in the UTILITY BUILD- ING, Rm.01. Just follow the charred heat pipes. Phone 566-0629 or 566-0530 or send VAX mail to account GEM.

The GEM is a member of the Canaclian Uni- versity Press.

I will never understand why budding computer sci- entists must have a liking of ugly insects.

Jim W. Lai

Thursday, November 26 1987

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