Full access important to university
To the editor,
I am responding to the front page article, "Standards May Rise to Redirect Unprepared UA Students," published in the Nov. 28 edition of the Arizona Daily Wildcat. Quoting from the article, the Governor's Task Force on Higher Education may "increase admission standards for future University of Arizona students in order to redirect some unqualified college students to community colleges." The article goes on to report that President Likins and the rest of the Task Force are recommending "the controversial redirection of students initiative in the hopes that it will lite Arizona above its current dropout rate."
Assuming that the article accurately represents the recommendations made by the Task Force, I strongly urge President Likens to do the following and then report the findings back to the university community: first, revisit the mission statement of this multicultural institution in light of current recommendations to redirect "unprepared" students away from the UA campus; then, identify the diverse non-traditional student populations who may be denied access to the University in order to lower drop-out rates; finally, reread current findings on the beneficial relationships between higher education, life-long learning and community well-being.
Susan San Jule
English doctoral candidate
Napster benefits artists
To the editor,
Cory Spiller's article regarding Napster on Nov. 29 disturbed me as both a musician, and a business student. Every artist should be dancing in streets with the introduction of this new technology. This technology eliminates the need for a middle man in the recording industry. Record companies make about 90 percent of profits on any given album, leaving a small percentage to the artist after promotional and producing fees are paid. The reason record companies can do this is that their service is needed. They are the only ones with the capital in order to mass produce a CD and distribute it. At least, they were. Now, with the download technology of Napster, an enormous amount of capital is no longer needed to distribute music. Whether record companies win in court or not, their monopoly over the music industry will no longer exist in 10 years. If they win, and distributing music can no longer be free, then artists will not sign record deals. They will simply start a Website, and sell their albums via download for say six dollars a pop. Since their middle man is eliminated, the artist will be making all six dollars on their CD, instead of about one dollar out of 15. If Napster does prevail, then artists should still be happy about this technology. Since music is now free, people will have more money available in their pockets that they would have otherwise spent on music. If a person had $15 they would have spent on a CD, then the artist could raise the price of his concert by $15. Now, however, the artist is getting all $15 dollars, instead of just one out of 15.
Record companies now are terrified of this, since it means their business will be obsolete in 10 years. The market will change from a price discriminatory monopoly, consisting of about five record companies, to a largely competitive market of artists. Next time you download a song on Napster, especially one of mine, feel good that you are doing the artists of tomorrow a great favor in eliminating their middle man which will actually lead to much greater profits for artists.
Kevin Durkin
Business sophomore
Gore doesn't want rule of law
To the editor,
In a letter in the Daily Wildcat, Melinda Mills stated that "The Gore/Lieberman ticket is simply doing everything they can to see every vote is counted..." I'm afraid that Mr. Gore's actions do not match this statement. Gore has pushed for recounts in predominately Democrat counties. If Gore really wanted every vote counted, then he would also be pushing to have the 40% of the military absentee ballots which were disqualified, included in the vote total. Why doesn't the great vote counting crusader fight for these votes too? After all, these are votes just the same as the votes in Miami-Dade and Palm Beach. The difference is that Military votes are predominately Republican. Gore is only fighting to count votes that he thinks will help him. Gore is not fighting for every vote, he's fighting because he wants to be president.
And as for Gore fighting to see that "...justice is done," as Ms. Mills puts it, the Bush campaign is the only camp that has been fighting to uphold the laws of Florida. Gore has been trying to change them.
Anthony Nelson
Criminal justice sophomore
