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Editorial: McGrath visit could bring some explanation

Wednesday, RHA member Bryan Babich announced his intention to invite Arizona State Represenative Jean McGrath to the university for a forum on her ideas and bills. After all of the grief that McGrath has given us, maybe we don't want her here. But we should invite her all the same and give her the chance to answer for her actions.

While it is almost certain that McGrath will refuse the invitation, preferring to stay away from what she believes to be the hellholes that are the universities of today, we should at least consider the issue. Babich admits that he hasn't had any luck in getting a hold of the legislator, but whether she comes or not, we have to consider if her coming would be a good thing.

If we just assume that she is some sort of Puritanical demon, out to ensure that no one in the world has more fun than she does, talking to her would just be a colossal waste of time and effort. As of yet, she hasn't done anything to dispel this sort of reputation, but we should invite her down anyway.

As a state representative, she represents the people of Glendale, Arizona, who for some reason, re-elect her for term after term. But as head of the committee on Public Institutions and Universities, she represents the whole of the people of Arizona - including us.

Legislatures have committee systems to stop absurd proposals from wasting the time and money of taxpayers on the floor of the house. McGrath, however, has twisted this system around to her own ends. As head of the Public Institutions and Universities committee, McGrath has shown that she can get pretty much any bill that she wants onto the floor of the state House.

McGrath has always claimed that her bills represent the concerns of students. Students, however, have disagreed. She has talked about the way universities were back when she attended 50 years ago. Rather than being malicious, she could just be misguided, without a clear understanding of college life in this century. A forum on her ideas would give her the opportunity to justify her views, and maybe gain some support for them on campus. Possibly, she could learn about what students really think, and reflect real issues. More likely though, it would give her the opportunity to explain her views. To explain her proposals to the faces of those she vilifies as drug-abusing nymphomaniacal welfare- sapping ungrateful curs.

It is easy for us to dismiss McGrath as a wacko. Unfortunately, she is the head of an important committee of the Arizona State Legislature, one that could potentially have a great deal of impact on our universities. We need to talk to her, and barring that, we need to have a forum for our outrage.

Who knows? Perhaps we have just been misinterpreting her intentions all this time. Perhaps she is really concerned about student issues, and would like to hear what we have to say. Perhaps she could come here, and maybe take some real issues back to Phoenix. Perhaps.