Lefties have rights too
Illustration
by Zon Petilla
 Case
in Point
By Elizabeth Leffall
The Collegian
Have you ever sat in a desk
on campus and noticed the top was facing the wrong way? Did you sit down
and start trying to write even though it was uncomfortable for your right
hand?
If so, you’re one of many students on campus who are contributing
to the plight of left-handed people.
It’s not easy being a leftie and living in a right-handed world.
Famous people such as Leonardo da Vinci, Mark Twain and Winston Churchill
have braved the world of righties and have succeeded, despite their special
trait.
And even though there will be two left-handed students in each high school
and college classroom, according to AS Resources, a handwriting company,
lefties still won’t receive the same attention as their counterparts.
In the 1920s, being left-handed was assumed to be the work of the devil.
Hundreds were ridiculed and received corporal punishment for a natural
born trait. Some students in Roman Catholic schools, according to Ubyssey
Magazine, were physically restrained from using their left hands. Those
were tough times.
Although few adjustments have been made, through the years society has
accepted lefties as different. And although lefties no longer suffer physical
punishment, we still face discrimination and remain an underrepresented
group just about everywhere, even on campus.
Case in point. I went to the Kennel Bookstore a few weeks ago to purchase
a left-handed notepad. Employees I spoke to didn’t even know what
that was.
One student helper said to me, “Left-handed, huh, I guess you guys
do need something to write on.”
Was she being, an anti-leftite, I thought. All I could muster was, “Uh,
yeah.”
After asking two more students, one in the textbook section and one on
the ground floor, I left frustrated.
Remembering their looks of confusion made me surprised that the bookstore
had never thought about providing materials for left-handed students.
Or so I thought.
A few days later I returned to the bookstore convinced this was an oversight
on my part. Starting from the upper level, I combed each aisle for notepads
without wires, or at least wire-bound across the top.
I reached the ground floor and as a last resort I went through the art
section. There it was, college-ruled yellow paper pad with very unusual
wide margins. A “knee pad” it was called.
Although designed for art students and not exactly what I was looking
for, it would serve my purpose for taking notes in class.
To a leftie it was like finding gold, a notepad without coils.
One student, only wanting to be referred to as Jose, said he was surprised
that I found even that notepad.
“Man, I’ve been at Fresno State for five years now and I’ve
never seen a left-handed notebook in any stores around here. I usually
have to go to Walmart or Target and stock up,” he said.
“I always have to arrive at my larger classes earlier to get a left-handed
seat. I don’t think anyone here ever thinks about it. We really
go unnoticed,” Jose said.
Case in point. Almost every left-handed student dreads trying to find
a seat in class at one time in their life.
I remember sitting in my Biology 10 class in McLane Hall as it filled
up with students. Being a leftie I arrived early to get a choice seat
on the left side of the room where all the seats had left-handed tops.
One evening about one week into class a student walked up to the teacher,
whispered in his ear and stood by the wall. My biology teacher called
the class to attention and asked for all of the right-handed students
sitting in the left-handed seats to please move.
If the students moving were truly the guilty ones, 70 percent of those
chairs were filled with right-handers. With delight the student on the
wall sat down and the others filled in other seats.
This got me thinking. Here is a room that seats 100 students plus and
has fewer than 10 seats for lefties. I decided to do a random survey of
classrooms around campus to see if my observation was accurate.
In Education room 187, I counted 50 chairs and no left-handed seats. In
Speech Arts room 163, I counted 46 chairs and one left-handed seat.
It wasn’t until I went to Peters Building room 11 that I found the
answer; long desks with chairs. Here everyone could sit and write.
You may not think it’s not a big deal but Columbia University sure
did.
In 2004 Columbia’s department of University and External Affairs
passed a resolution for the equal opportunity for left-handed students.
The resolution said, “Whereas left-handed people make up 14 percent
of the student population and 11 percent in general and whereas many classrooms
on campus do not have any left-handed desks; be it resolved that Columbia
University should accommodate left-handed students by placing left-handed
desks in every classroom in relation to the percentage of left-handed
people in the student population.”
In spring 2005, the Associated Students of the University of California
followed Columbia’s lead and, believe it or not, passed a bill in
support of left-handed students.
“Whereas 10 percent of the ASUC Senate is left-handed, whereas prejudices
against lefties throughout history have resulted them in being considered
inferior and whereas this puts left-handed students at a disadvantage
in classrooms, which should be equally accessible to all and whereas it
is further frustrating when in a classroom that does have left-handed
desks, you hear the right-handers complain about having to sit at one
because it is uncomfortable, be it resolved that the ASUC Senate stands
in solidarity with all left-handed people in their pursuit of equal access
to appropriate desks in classrooms.”
Why all the fuss, you may ask. Just a leftie trying to get a little recognition,
lefties have rights too.
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