Issue date: 9/30/04 Section: Editorial

Maybe it's just me, but I think our county and state governments need to set up a system where it knows if someone is a college student.

This way the governments won't summon any students for jury duty. Or, they could at least send us a get-out-free card.

I know it is my civic responsibility to serve on a jury, and it is a price I pay so I can enjoy the luxury of being an American citizen. Well, I got summoned for jury duty and the thought scares me to death. The fact that if I do end up having to serve I will be deciding someone's fate based on evidence of a crime that person may or may not have committed gives me chills. Who am I to know? I'm not comfortable with that thought, and knowing me, the jury could be in deliberation for hours for something as trivial as a parking fine.

But how many of you have been summoned to federal court to serve? Doesn't that just make it sound that much worse? Who knows what they do with you in the courthouse? Sure, $40 a day isn't bad, but I could make that much in a day at the Alestle, which is where I will be if I actually get out of my jury duty. Heaven forbid, I should have to go. I'm sure the Alestle staffers would be OK without me, but I'm sure they wouldn't be happy about it.

So, in order to save my staff and myself, I have done all I can to get out of jury duty. I filled out the 9 million pages of questions telling someone how up-to-date I am on the news, how I know about everything going on in the area, how I know law enforcement officers, lawyers and lots of other information that probably wasn't needed. And since I had to have it back in seven days, I sent the thing off as quickly as I could.

Then I read the fine print. "Full-time students should submit a letter from their university." OK, I could do that, anything to get out of jury duty. So I went to get my letter. Well, I needed a copy of the letter the courthouse sent me first. So I went the next day and tried to get my letter. I handed in a copy of my summons and I filled out the form, and I checked back. It wasn't until three days and a weekend later that I could pick up my letter, and by then it was too late to mail the thing. I finally faxed a letter, with a week to go until I had to be at the courthouse. Probably not the best idea
time wise, but I guess you could say I was lucky I got it in at all.

The good news is I beat the system, and as of 5 p.m. Monday I was excused from serving on the federal court jury. I'm sure it was the fact that court officials got the letter from the university, but I still like to think my insightful answers had something to do with it.

Tyler Bennett

Editor in Chief

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