Dear Editor,
Along with Lori Doyle, the ETSU employee and mother who wrote in on Sept. 2, I agree that the advertisement for Seminole Ridge printed on the whole back cover of the East Tennessean’s August 26, 2004 edition shocked me.
The ad had a picture of two sets of feet poking out of a white bed comforter with a caption saying “Redefine the term roommate.”
The sexually explicit suggestion that the ad offers conflicts with the article on Page 4 of the same paper. This article entitled “Freshmen find new health challenges at school” discusses tips for a healthy lifestyle. As a good friend pointed out to me, is it not ironic that the article would mention problems such as upper-respiratory and gastrointestinal illnesses, mononucleosis), eating disorders, dating violence, emotional abuse and depression, yet fail to mention STD’s and their harmful results? These are all health issues that freshmen need to be aware of, so why then are the issues of STD’s and sex missing in this article? We encourage healthy lifestyles but print a message across the back to suggest redefining what roommate means, in a sexually explicit way. The healthy lifestyles article does not address sex and all the problems that sleeping around can cause.
Part of my shock comes from the fact that this was the first paper of the fall semester, the paper which gives freshmen and transfer students an impression of our university. This letter is obviously being written by someone who knows our university to have a higher reputation than was shown in that advertisement. It disappoints me more than shocks me to think of us encouraging a lifestyle of sleeping around, without mentioning STD’s and other dangers of having a “Seminole Ridge roommate”.
As a 19-year-old sophomore at ETSU, I find the ad distasteful. My hopes for the editing staff of this newspaper are much higher in they would make decisions about what they choose to publish with a much more discerning manner. Thank you for your hard work thus far.
Katie Beth Criswell

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