Congratulations to both of the Georgia Basketball teams for such outstanding victories this past week. To beat a highly ranked team is one thing, but to outplay both of the Vols teams for forty minutes to garner Ws is another.

More impressive than anything else was the modus operandi of the Georgia teams; team play and defense, defense, defense. These victories ended long losing streaks going back to 2004, but were by no means flukes. They were well earned and well deserved.

Since 1979, Andy Landers has brilliantly coached the Lady Dawgs. By the looks of the Georgia men’s team this year, Mark Fox is doing the same outstanding job. Here’s to hoping he is still here thirty years from now.

Thomas Candeto

Junior, Covington

Business management

Coach Mark Fox brings ‘energy’ and ‘potential’

As a UGA-bound high school senior in 2008, I was excited to see UGA win the SEC men’s basketball tournament after an “improbable” run.

Not only was my head filled with the prospects of a possible national football title, but now it was filled with fantasies of a competitive SEC basketball team as well.

When basketball season began last year, I quickly found this expectation to be only a figment of my imagination.

Eventually, my attendance at basketball games was based on the availability of free T-shirts, Cane’s coupons, and the possibility of a TV appearance. This was not the dream I had at the end of the 2008 season.

When Coach Felton was fired midseason, I doubted rumors of possible superstar basketball coaching hires because I did not want disappointment to rear its ugly head again. Then, I believed that my attendance for future games during my remaining collegiate stay would continue to be based on material gain rather than true school spirit.

To tell the truth, I was somewhat apprehensive when Coach Fox was hired.

To me and my friends, his picture on Georgiadogs.com reminded us more of a high school physics teacher rather than a basketball coach who could resurrect UGA’s basketball team.

Even though his coaching bio was impressive at Nevada, I was convinced that Coach Fox might find coaching our team to success difficult in a larger, more competitive conference.

I write now because I stand corrected.

Although the men’s basketball team is barely above 0.500, I believe that Coach Fox has brought this program a new outlook, energy, and potential I didn’t believe was possible.

In one offseason, this team, comprised mostly of returning players, has improved in all aspects, from disciplined warm-ups to free throw shooting.

Our 9-8 record does not illustrate how much the team has improved, nor does it portray our difficult schedule.

To place part of the season in perspective, four of the past five opponents have been nationally ranked teams; we finished 2-2 against these nationally ranked teams. Not one school in the nation has played a five game streak of that nature.

Therefore, I implore all students to fill Stegeman and support the men’s basketball team for the remainder of the season, as we did this past Thursday.

You ask why?

Because it can only get better from here.

Ryan Sheets

Sophomore, Mobile, AL

International affairs

‘Practical application’ lacking in experiment

Ms. Varner,

While I find your experiment to be rather interesting, I can’t help but wonder if there could be a more practical application to it. Countless members of society at large, including our own Athens-Clarke community, are forced to live on such meager funds that the meal plan you have designed for yourself this week would seem downright luxurious to them.

It’s a reminder of our privilege and luxury that we are able to make decisions like this in the first place, whether it’s skipping out on Sunday take-out to trim your waist for a social, or on preparing meals for yourself for an entire week out of frivolous curiosity.

I wonder if you ever considered placing yourself in the position of, say, a single mother who has no choice but to skip meals so that her children can eat instead.

Perhaps next time, your social experiment could be repeated with the promise of sponsorship or some other humanitarian twist to raise food or money for the people who are all too used to the hunger you decided to try for fun.

Alina yudkevich

Sophomore, Marietta

Sociology and political science

No profit in Green fee for Go Green Alliance

In regards to the cartoon that ran in yesterday’s paper, there were two misconceptions.

First, Go Green Alliance will not be making a profit from the $3 Green Fee, nor will gnomes be collecting a profit like the South Park episode referenced by the cartoonist.

The Green Fee was established to support an Office of Sustainability and campus sustainability projects.

Secondly, we did not invent the wheel when we came up with a “Green Fee.” University of California at Berkeley passed one of the first “green fees” three years ago to establish an office of sustainability and support campus initiatives.

In Go Green Alliance’s proposal for an Office of Sustainability funded by a Green Fee, we specifically outlined the mechanisms for allocating the money through a director and committee as well as potential uses for the fee.

This includes creating student internships in sustainability, restructuring of the Environmental Literacy program, providing better communication about environmental efforts, funding student sustainability projects like Gameday Recycling, and ensuring more funding for sustainable operations such as bio-diesel in the buses.

This was not a haphazard approach to create a superficial office.

Rather, it is the product of intense research on over 40 schools with offices of sustainability (there are many more), of which eight are peer and aspirational institutions with green fees and offices of sustainability.

Emily karol

Junior, Marietta

Journalism

Homeopathy not remedy for any kind of sickness

The Jan 20 article “Herb Your Enthusiasm: Homeopathic remedies help with common student ailments” dealt primarily with herbal remedies.

I’d like to point out that the person who drafted the headline is mistaken in equating herbal remedies with homeopathic ones. Homeopathy is based on the idea that “like cures like” and that diluting a substance beyond the point where there is any left will make a “remedy”. (Please read the Overview section at www.homeowatch.org for a better explanation.) Any good results people have after taking a homeopathic “remedy” are very likely the result of the placebo effect.

Readers who are thinking, “Homeopathy works for me!” owe it to themselves to read up on the principles behind it and see what they think about them.

Paul Keck

Watkinsville

Assoc. Director

EITS