The Texas Tech Student Government Association will discuss passing a resolution to make The Daily Toreador change how they display the death toll of the people who died in Iraq.
Scott Gorenc, a senator in the SGA, was the author of the resolution.
"How someone displays a graphic is powerful," Gorenc said. "How The Daily Toreador puts it is not an image of respect."
Gorenc said he would suggest The DT put the numbers in more of a script style.
"The Daily Toreador needs to change the title to something more graceful, like 'Those who have sacrificed their lives,'" Gorenc said. "They can include an American flag by it or a yellow ribbon."
The senator said he understands what the newspaper is doing, but they can do it in a more tasteful manner.
According to the resolution, the SGA accused The DT of disrespecting military families by displaying the current lives lost under the banner "Death toll." The resolution also said The DT disregards human life by just displaying it as number similar to a scoreboard.
Joey Kirk, editor in chief of The Daily Toreador, said The DT felt students were not informed about how many people died in Iraq.
"The death toll is not to honor the men who died and it is not to go against Bush," Kirk said. "The reason it is there is to acknowledge that many people died in Iraq."
Kirk said the death toll is like another story, which is why it is put at the bottom.
"A lot of people want information fast," Kirk said. "Instead of putting a 16-paragraph story in the paper, we can sum it up by putting a numerical death count. It's just an extension of what we have."
Adam Richard, a senior biology major from Sour Lake, said there is good and bad about displaying the death toll.
"The bad thing is it shows how many people died," Richard said. "It's good because it shows how many people sacrificed their lives for our country."
Jacob Gonzales, a junior studying cell and molecular biology from Hobbs, N.M., said he thinks it is disrespectful to have the counter in the same place every day.
However, Gonzales said he thinks it is OK to display the death toll at the bottom of the page.
"If people don't want to read they don't have to," Gonzales said. "It doesn't matter to me, but I can see how some people could be offended."
Gonzales said The DT could display the toll weekly instead of daily.
Amanda Harkey, a senior architecture and civil engineering major from Dallas, said she thinks the death toll is appropriate.
"It doesn't comment on one side or the other," she said. "It is just simply put and doesn't reflect on the number."
Harkey said she likes the toll on the side, but another title could be appropriate.
"It is not the main focus of the paper," Harkey said. "The main focus of the paper is the stories in it."
Ralph Pettingell, another SGA senator, said he thinks the death toll display is disrespectful to the troops who are fighting in Iraq and the ones who died.
Kirk said the SGA is entitled to their own opinion.
"The editorial board is in charge of how it displays the death toll," Kirk said. "We did move it to the bottom instead of the top of the page because we felt it was overbearing on the top and produced bias opinion."
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