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Opinion
 

Letters to the Editor

CAPS response

To the editor:

As Director of Counseling and Psychological Services, I would like to respond to some of the comments by Jim McCormick in The Daily Cougar on Wednesday ("Psychological Services needs overhaul"). I was pleased with the compliments about the quality of our services and sad that our services did not always appear to be timely.

CAPS is understaffed compared to comparable institutions, but the Student Fees Advisory Committee and the vice president for student affairs' office have been aware of this and, given the University's budget constraints, have been responsive by incrementally increasing staffing over the last several years.

Crises take precedence over anything else we do, so if a student comes to CAPS in tears, or says that they need to be seen urgently, they are seen within minutes. It is true that more routine intakes may take as much as two weeks to schedule.

For someone who has already seen a counselor at CAPS and would like to see them again, they can usually be scheduled without a new intake.

I am out of town responding to this opinion piece, but I also know from my staff that five separate crises were handled today alone.

At CAPS we care deeply about students and try to be as responsive as possible. We will use this opinion piece as a reminder to redouble our efforts.

Ken Waldman
CAPS director

Gotta misrepresent

To the editor:

I appreciate and respect the column "Happy Birthday to you ... BOOM!" (Mubaraka Saifee, Opinion, Monday) only because of the principle of freedom of speech. Besides that, it seems she has no objectivity, or intelligence for that matter, because the tone of the article is addressing all Muslims and not the handful of ignorant people committing acts of terror. The blame was placed implicitly with Muslims. She would not dare write a column blaming all African-Americans for the looting that happened in New Orleans.

The statement "People should be able to leave others alone and not have to annihilate anyone who does not agree with their viewpoint" is 100 percent correct, but attributing that to all Muslims is irresponsible and ignorant, and her opinion panders to the lowest common denominator. 

Also, the birthday of the Prophet Muhammad is not celebrated, nor is it like Christmas day.

Muhammad Hammad
mechanical engineering junior

Letters to the editor are welcome from all members of the UH community and should focus on issues, not personalities. Letters must be typed and must include the author's name, telephone number and affiliation with the University. Anonymous letters will not be published. Letters are subject to editing for clarity, language and space. Letters may be delivered in person to Room 151, Communication; e-mailed to dclettrs@mail.uh.edu ; or faxed to (713) 743-5384.