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Letters to the Editor

Better argumentation needed

To the editor,

The gullibility of my fellow students never ceases to amaze me, and Mr. Zeckets' essay proves it. Rather than demonstrating how multinational corporations are evil and how they enslave humanity, what we get is another love letter rich on hyperbole that bypasses the complicated issues of globalization altogether. The result? The tired refrain of big bad government versus the freedom-loving students who've just gotten their degrees.

Please. I am not going to pat these bib-dribbling, spoon-clanging elitists on the head and thank God they're here to save the natives from themselves. I've never doubted their right to peaceful protest or even their conviction. But how is the public (read consumers) supposed to get better informed if we don't get resources, issues, argument and counter-argument about why we should hate multinational corporations? I'm sorry to say this, but merely whining "it's the right thing to do" isn't a tune I'm going to goose-step to; that's like telling an employer you're the best person for the job "just because" and leaving it at that.

Come on, students! Stop patting yourselves on the back, get the information out there, drop the self-congratulatory press, and get the debate really started on these important issues.

Yisrael Ari Espinoza

Graduate student

Near Eastern studies

JOBTRAK server secure

To the editor,

We read with interest your story regarding the security of the JOBTRAK web site. We would like to set the record straight. Yesterday, we were informed by a reporter for the Daily Wildcat that files containing student resumes were accessible to the public on our web site. Upon receiving this information, we immediately deleted the files.

Further analysis showed the files to consist of resumes submitted by students to employers on two days in October of 1998 during the beta-test phase of our on-campus interview scheduling system.

The article stated that "data reaching as far back as 1998 was available to the public." This gave the impression that all data from 1998 forward was accessible. This is not the case. In fact, the only resumes accessible were those submitted to employers on two days, two years ago.

The article also states that "batches of resumes were sent out to employers in the last two years and that copies of each were placed on the FTP server." This is also inaccurate as we changed our transfer protocol from FTP to the more secure HTTPD in October of 1998 and have not transferred a single resume via FTP since that time.

We take the security of our site very seriously. The incident reported by the Daily Wildcat was not a breach of our security, but rather an error on our part for not deleting these old files sooner. There is no indication that anyone viewed these files other than those people at Daily Wildcat who reported it to us. We have taken the appropriate steps to ensure that this type of error will not happen again.

We highly value our relationship with the University of Arizona and each of our other 1,000 partner schools. Last year alone, employers posted over 300,000 job openings on JOBTRAK, 20,000 of which were specifically targeted toward University of Arizona students and graduates.

For the past twelve years we have dedicated ourselves to providing a useful and valuable service for students and alumni across the country and look forward to continuing to serve the University of Arizona well into the future.

Ken Ramberg

Co-Founder

JOBTRAK Corporation

Grad students vital

To the editor,

With over 4 years to reflect on as an undergrad, I realize just how important graduate students are to my university experience. When I started out as a freshman, the graduate students who initiated me into "college" seemed so flawless, so mature and all-knowing. They were awesome in my virgin eyes. I pictured them sitting in coffee houses 'til the wee hours of the morning, discussing Sartre and Nietzsche, going home, waking up, popping out of bed, and coming to class and spouting the most intelligent and creative thing I'd ever heard up until then. I also must have believed that they were all independently wealthy and could devote their time to such lofty academic pursuits.

Now, I look back on my personal experiences with graduate students as classmates, mentors, teachers, and friends, and I realize just how human graduate students are -though most of us don't see it. They eat and sleep, just like we undergrads do. That means they have to pay for food and shelter. They take classes, just like we do, which means they have to pay out registration fees. It also means that they have to study. And sometimes, they get sick, just like we do. Only we can still qualify under our parents' health care, where as they are afforded only minimal insurance benefits.

On top of that, however, they also have to teach, make lesson plans, grade papers, conduct research, apply for grants, meet with students for office hours, make coffee, rub their advisors' toes and do their homework. And somehow, I never saw one of them crack. They've done it effortlessly. And I am the better student, no, human being, for having known and studied under them.

Graduate students are the one resource from which I have benefited the most during my college career. When in class, with 150 other clueless students, it was nice to have a friendly face there willing to set me straight. To this day, I can't remember the names of some of my most well-known and heralded professors. But I DO remember the name of every single TA who ever took time out of their day to help me.

To them, I say thank you. I support you in your cause. Heaven knows you've supported me in mine.

Veneranda Aguirre

International studies senior