Student Ills Can’t Be Healed By Psych Services
Dear Editor:
“Sobel’s death highlights the importance of suicide prevention through student use of the campus’ psychological services, administrators said.” It is, of course, just another expression of the removed scientific arrogance of this university to imply that severe mental and personal problems can be alleviated by simply referring oneself to the appropriate mental/life processing entity within the bureaucratic hodge-podge of student services. Nevermind the neglect of the lack of community here, the routine coldness of academic rigor without a break to respond to the starving emotional needs of so many students. A healthy university environment would be able to help those who don’t do so well to improve academically, but also to help those who put everything into their efforts to excel in the classroom understand that this leads to a sad, lonely, stressful life if the needs of friends, love, and fun are ignored.
What’s really important? So all I need is a surrogate friend at psych services, and to keep on studying? I’d prefer acts of kindness, people stopping to talk, a hug, even a nod from professors trying to cram a semester into a quarter that too much is enough — experiences hard to come by on this campus. And to all those to whom I have not shown these things as well as I can, I am sorry. I will try to be more mindful and more kind.
—Name withheld on request
Sixth College Undergraduate
UCSD’s Gay Community Puckered Up on V-Day
Dear Editor:
Queer People of Color (QPOC) would like to talk about our third-annual QPOC Kiss-In that was held this Tuesday, Feb. 14. The Kiss-In is a celebration each Valentine’s Day in which queer people of color and their allies gather on Library Walk and educate the student body with fliers to initiate dialogue about heterosexism and homophobia. We also, as the name of the event expresses, kiss and show other levels of affection that are considered acceptable behavior for straight couples, but not for same-sex couples.
In past years there has been confusion about why we hold the Kiss-In. We are out on Library Walk because on any other day, we wouldn’t feel comfortable being there and showing affection to our partners. When straight couples kiss, it is largely ignored, and is at worse a nuisance, while when queer couples kiss we are gawked at, often harassed, and become the talk of the school by lunchtime — and we object.
That is why we chose the theme of this year’s Kiss-In to be “Validating Our Love”, a theme that encompassed all of our Kiss-In goals: to challenge the heteronormativity directed upon us and show through our presence as queer people of color on campus that our expression of love is equally valid and our relationships are equally as loving. It is not about drawing attention for attention’s sake, or flaunting our queerness. It is about taking the steps necessary so that same-sex affection will one day no longer have to be an event, but simply be accepted as an act of kindness and love. Since it is still the other way around, we’ll be out there every Valentine’s Day, and we thank all our supporters who come by.
—UCSD Queer People of Color
