Cults must be covered
Guensie Grecy's article, "Web site aims to warn others about cults" (Oct. 4) is intriguing.
The very idea of cults being on campus is one that creates interest and concern almost immediately. However, what caught my attention was the quotation of Rabbi Laemmle not viewing the presence of cults on campus as a problem. Grecy could have accomplished more if the article addressed a few points addressed below.
More could have been gained if Grecy defined for the audience what was meant by a cult, as there are some conflicting and often ill-formed definitions available. Or why there actually are cults allowed onto campus, when USC as a private institution, reserves the explicit right to not permit cults onto campus in the first place?
Perhaps Grecy could have educated people to the psychological effects leaving a cult has on those who found the courage and strength to leave? The entirety of the issue of cults on campus must be addressed.
Megan Singer junior sociology, psychology
Senate running well
Wednesday's editorial ("No excuse for cancelled Senate meeting," Oct. 5) was uninformed, rash reporting that illustrated a lack of understanding of the purpose of Senate meetings and resulted in an unfair criticism of Senate. Senate meetings are legislative sessions, not information sessions or discussion forums. Since Senate does not legislate the student body, the legislation discussed and passed during meetings often has nothing to do with the issues of the student body.
Rather, the legislation is generally designed to help Senate run more smoothly, so student issues can be appropriately addressed. Consequently, when a meeting is cancelled because of a "light agenda" - a lack of legislation to address - it does not mean that Senate is ignorant of or ignoring student needs, as implied by Wednesday's article, but rather that Senate is running smoothly - quite the opposite of what the editors seemed to think.
Perhaps we should have fewer Senate meetings and introduce some form of regular town hall forum, where students could present issues and discuss directly with Senate what we are doing to address these issues. I would love to see this happen. But for now, Senate meetings are not designed to bring up pressing issues - they're designed for legislation, and pressing issues are only legislative in the case of a resolution. The advocacy and programming that the editors seemed to imply aren't being done are in fact accomplished outside of Senate meetings, every day.
If the Senate meeting agendas were filled with all of the student needs being addressed by Senate, rather than the legislature it is intended to be filled with, the meetings would be all-day marathons. Please research what you criticize before publishing your criticisms. It is frustrating and disheartening to be criticized by the very people we're working to help, when those criticisms are ill informed and unfair.
Brian Braunlich sophomore cinema-television production residential senator
PR part of journalism
Sara Libby's editorial "PR should not be a part of J-School" on Oct. 6 does a disservice to both public relations students at USC and public relations practitioners everywhere.
The editorial, which calls for the removal of the public relations major from the School of Journalism, criticizes public relations practitioners for compromising their personal and professional integrity for a client's interests as well as relying exclusively on spin tactics to promote their messages.
Libby suggests that, unlike a journalist, the public relations practitioner compromises the objectivity, clarity, or truth of disseminated information because he or she must "be loyal to the specific interests of his or her employer." This is an erroneous argument for two reasons. First, a journalistic publication is also an employer with specific interests, particularly regarding their advertisers. Second, any good public relations agency advises their clients that media relations will rapidly deteriorate if the agency attempts to provide journalists with unbalanced, unclear and inaccurate information.
Libby bases her argument on her experience with entertainment publicists and a journalist who "dabbled in PR." But these sources represent an extremely limited view of the public relations profession. Publicists, incidentally, often voluntarily distinguish themselves from the public relations field. Public relations practitioners champion a diverse skill set including event planning, copywriting, graphic design, crisis management, public affairs, consumer relations and media relations.
This final discipline, media relations, underscores the strategic importance of housing public relations and journalism in the same school. The public relations practitioner/journalist relationship is not fundamentally dissimilar to the journalist/reader relationship; the success of each depends on the transfer of balanced, clear and accurate information. The goals of both journalists and public relations practitioners should include the ongoing development of mutually beneficial relationships with each another - not a separation at the academic level.
Luke Peña public relations director USC Program Board
