Counsel concerns

Speech comm students are out of luck after adviser left town mid-semesterWanted: Speech communications adviser.

Early last month, former adviser Sarah McQuade ditched Athens for the University’s Cost Rica office. Although students with more than 60 hours in the major were warned of her imminent departure, her move has concerned other students in the department.

Professors and department administrators have had to pitch in to help clear students for required courses, but according to some, the temporary substitutes possess less-than-stellar knowledge about the major’s requirements.

Sure, it’s not professors’ faults the department’s adviser left some students high and dry.

But shouldn’t professors have a basic knowledge of their department’s graduation requirements?

A department’s adviser shouldn’t be the only person qualified to advise students.

Professors – no matter what their department – should be able to assist students with scheduling issues if needed.

And we’d like to take this opportunity to remind students – whatever your major – to be advised as early as possible. With that said, show up when you say you will. Advisers’ schedules are jam-packed with appointments, and being a no-show is not only inconsiderate, it’s also a waste of time for the adviser.

Be proactive in your approach to advising. Know your major’s requirements and have several classes in mind for the next semester – the entire schedule is available on OASIS. Also, know your professors and the department secretary in case a speech communications-esque situation were to occur.

Sure, the adviser picked a poor time to leave the job – a hiring freeze has been in place since Sept. 17 – but the speech communications majors deserve the same attentive advisement the rest of us – hopefully – already receive.

- Shannon Otto for the editorial board

Tactless politics

Representative Paul Broun compared Obama’s security suggestion to Hitler’sAnother Georgia politician has become fodder for political talk shows and the blogosphere. This time it was District 10′s very own Representative Paul Broun.

Broun compared Obama’s plan to have a national security force to Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union. He also claimed Obama was showing “signs of being Marxist.”

We respect that Broun might disagree with Obama. As an elected member of Congress he has a right and responsibility to speak out on this issue. But for the love of civilized debate, does he have to invoke Adolf Hitler?

After a heated election season, we were hoping politicians could come together and heal the divide caused by partisan politics and outrageous soundbites. Broun, who represents Clarke County, seems reluctant to do this.

His words have embarrassed his constituents and the state of Georgia. They are just as harmful as recent comments by Congressman Lynn Westmoreland – who called the Obamas “uppity” – and the actions of former Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney.

Before launching into his absurd rant, Broun prefaced his comments with, “It may sound a bit crazy and off base…” That’s the only thing Broun said that we agree with.

- Drew Wheatley for the editorial board