Letters to the editor

I'd like to respond to last week's articles in the Opinion and Sports sections regarding Santa Clara's track program.

We added a limited "distance" track program five years ago to allow our cross country athletes the opportunity to qualify for NCAAs in the spring track season. Considering that we don't have a track, we had no greater ambition than that.

Soon, however, some SCU students asked if we could let them run in short distance events at track meets. They knew we had no track and no intention of fielding a full track team. Coach Tom Service allowed it as a favor to them.

We've done some soul searching lately and we realize we just can't provide these non-distance track athletes with the type of "student-athlete experience" each of our athletes deserve (they have to train at local high schools). Maintaining a first-rate student-athlete experience is very important to us.

That said, it is important for us to allow all current non-distance runners in the program the ability to continue their careers at Santa Clara if they so choose.

We decided to stop accepting new requests by non-distance runners to join the track team, but we will allow all current non-distance runners the ability to continue to race for their entire Santa Clara careers.

No sport is being cut, no athlete is being cut and no season is cut short. We did not have anything near a full track program before and we don't now.

We simply decided to continue our distance track program and not add any more non-distance runners in the future if more SCU students approach Coach Service about joining the team.

Thank you for allowing me this explanation.

Dan Coonan

Director of Athletics & Recreation

Put Pepsi cups in their place

Disposable Pepsi cups are a staple of drinking on the go at Santa Clara. They are both convenient and stylish, used by most of the student population.

But if you ever stop to read the signs posted on Benson waste and compost bins, you'll notice that these cups (sponsored by Pepsi) are not compostable.

Santa Clara prides itself on its commitment to sustainability on campus, but, unfortunately, entire composting bins can be ruined if a single Pepsi cup is thrown into them.

To put that in perspective, in any ONE given week at Santa Clara, over 10,000 Pepsi cups are used on-campus. That's over 300,000 cups per school year!

"Grass Roots Environmental Efforts Now!" or the G.R.E.E.N. Club, along with the Environmental Studies Institute, or E.I.S., are trying to get the word out to promote the proper disposal of these Pepsi cups in order to develop a more sustainable campus.

Students should strive to use reusable cups in Benson as much as possible and make sure they look for waste bins when throwing away their Pepsi cups.

We are even sending a petition to Pepsi suggesting that they create compostable to-go cups to deal with the problem at the source.

Be an active Santa Clara student and please do all that you can to help! It only takes a little effort! Look for G.R.E.E.N. club and its Pepsi Cup Campaign around campus these next two weeks!

Signs have been posted on the windows in Benson between Market Square and Mission Bakery and Cafe with information about the ecological impact of Pepsi cups.

The petition and survey are on Facebook. All you have to do is type in "Students for Compostable Pepsi Cups" into the search bar.

It only takes a moment of your time, during which you would probably normally just be procrastinating! Take the time and make a difference. Thank you!

Spencer Rahn '13

undeclared business

Donate blood, save lives

I encourage everyone, students, faculty and staff, to consider donating blood when the Stanford Blood Center visits the Mission Room in Benson on Thursday and Friday, May 27-28.

Doing so is very gratifying, especially as only 3% of the public donates.

I started donating over a half a century ago, as a college freshman, and it's been a life-long habit since.

In the 1960's and 1970's, I sometimes got poignant thank you letters or cards from children (or their parents) who received my blood, but federal privacy laws preclude this from happening nowadays.

Still, I know the recipients are out there, and they know that my donations are made thinking of them and their needs.

In my experience, the Stanford Blood Center is the best of the local blood banks.

Donors not only find out their blood pressure and hemoglobin levels when they give, but several weeks later they receive their cholesterol level in the mail.

During this particular blood drive, donors will also receive a free movie pass!

You can either make an appointment to donate online at http://blodcenter.stanford.edu/, or you can just walk in and sign up (bring some reading in case it's a busy time).

An hour of your time to perhaps save a life--such a deal!

Dr. Peter Ross

Senior Lecturer, the Department of Mathematics

and Computer Science