Comprehensive Campus Plan needs Îreality checkâ

I read your recent article on the Campus Comprehensive Plan with interest.

The plan is certainly a remarkably ambitious proposal, one imagines a veritable paradise of a campus. But, given the current state of the university, one must wonder how realistic it is. Over the last years, we have seen funding from the state shrink continuously. If past experience is a guide, state support of the UA will continue to shrink. It requires immense optimism to believe there will be a sea of change in politics in Arizona and some of this idyllic vision will become reality.

We should not forget that the UA campus used to be a garden surrounded by walls, which is of course, a paradise. There was room and space for everyone, buildings were not crowded together and great vistas of the surrounding mountains could be seen from many parts of our campus. No longer. It continues to be astonishing to me that building of new structures has continued at a remarkable pace, but with increasingly complex loans, gifts and financing arrangements.

One must wonder how much longer this can continue. It was also interesting to me that the planners are still pushing the grassy lawns and tree-lined colonnade is of some Berkeley on the Santa Cruz. Surely, our planners might consider that we live in the Sonoran Desert. Perhaps it was the same planners who were so surprised at the reaction of many on campus in recent discussions of plans to remove the Krutch cactus garden.

It seems a reality check is in order. The UA is short of money. Promises that the budget cuts would only last until 2004 have already been shelved. Hundreds of UA employees have already been given layoff notices. Offices have been closed. If this continues for several years, as seems likely, then the idyllic ãdreamsä of the planners may turn out to be a nightmare.

In this alternative, the Sciences Concourse, which has been a ãlong plot of land filled with dirt,ä as your writer notes, for over a decade will likely remain so. Whatever students remain in a shrunken university, with few faculty, professionals and staff might pass a monument to some long-forgotten administrator or planner.

Two vast and trunkless legs of stone

Stand in the desert. Near them, on the sand,

Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,

And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,

Tell that its sculptor well those passions read

Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,

The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed.

And on the pedestal these words appear ÷

ãMy name is Ozymandias, king of kings:

Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!ä

But of course, none of those students would understand the reference.

Timothy Jull
Senior Research Scientist, Geosciences
Chair, Appointed Personnel Organization

Dale knows nothing about European life

Shane Dale has once again demonstrated that the Know-Nothing Party is alive and well in America. How absurd to think that the only reason for people outside the United States to despise America is because those people are jealous of us. I suppose at some puerile level it makes people like Mr. Dale feel better about themselves and maybe there is some nation envy that takes place when one nation has so much while others have so little.

However, the real reason that Western Europeans and others around the world express such hatred at the United States is because we are so belligerent when it comes to shoving our values down peopleâs throats, all the while conveniently ignoring those values when there is a dollar to be made. How else do you explain our haughtiness over democracy in Cuba when we then turn around and do billions of dollars in business with Saudi Arabia and China? Having values is one thing, living by them is quite another.

Let me also add, since conservatives are worse than liberals when it comes to making up facts to suit their interests, that cocaine is not legal in the Netherlands. There are criminal penalties for the sale and possession of cocaine. Only marijuana and psylicibin have been decriminalized. Ironically, the Dutch have lower rates of drug use for all drugs than the United States.

For marijuana use among youth, the rate in the Netherlands is half that in the United States. War on Drugs indeed! Also, America does not account for 40 percent of the worldâs wealth and there are many European countries with gross domestic products that equal Americaâs.

Finally, since when is it not healthy to disagree with oneâs country? I thought that America was founded on this principle? Or is this another time when we should conveniently ignore our values?

Mark Konty
sociology graduate student

European culture more open-minded than American

Having just read Shane Daleâs commentary, ãA Dose of Western European Hypocrisy,ä Iâm compelled to point out some of the errors in Mr. Daleâs diatribe. Why he feels the need to answer supposed anti-American sentiments with insults and half-truths is puzzling, but may I respectfully suggest that he, himself, spend some time in Europe so that he can better understand the subject of his polemic. In his essay, he accuses the Dutch of being coked-up pawns at the mercy of their governmentâs manipulation.

Having lived in Amsterdam for 13 months, I can attest to the Netherlandsâ social system as being far superior, in many ways, to our own. The Dutch are subject to a far higher tax rate than we are, but they also have access to free health care, free education and low-cost, subsidized housing, among other things. They have legalized so-called vices that we donât tolerate in this country such as drugs, but they also have a lower rate of drug abuse and easier access to treatment for addiction.

As for Mr. Daleâs rant against public transportation, I can only say that not being saddled with car payments, maintenance costs, parking hassles, etc. was a wonderful way to spend my year abroad. And though Mr. Dale reasons that the European countries hate us for our wealth, if Iâm not mistaken, the Netherlands is the richest country in the world.

Such ill-informed commentary is hardly worthy of a political science major at UA. I sincerely hope that after graduation, Mr. Dale travels the world to see the difference between theory and reality.

David Morden
University Library staff

Americans are the hypocrites, not people from Europe

I am writing in regard to the absurd commentary column entitled ãA Dose of Western European Hypocrisy,ä by Shane Dale. I am truly shocked that you would publish such drivel. Yes, Americans are not popular overseas.

Yes, one could say that there is some hatred for Americans abroad. However, the remarks made in this ãcommentaryä cannot be considered explanations for these feelings of animosity.

Before I continue, I would like to apologize to any American who does know how to behave away from home. Please pay no attention to the following comments.

Ever since the invention of the package holiday, Americans have made an art out of disgracing themselves in Europe. They arrive in wind suit clad groups and proceed to disrespect as many aspects of European culture as possible in their allotted two weeks.

Once, clad in my school uniform, I was accosted by a gaggle of American tourists who photographed and remarked on ãthe cute, English schoolgirl.ä

This arrogance is why Americans are not welcomed with open arms by Europeans.

This attitude is not the only culprit for European disdain toward the United States.

Let us focus on North American (excluding Canadians) hypocrisy. During the apartheid era in South Africa, the United States was outraged by this infraction of human rights and placed many sanctions on this African nation. It does seem hypocritical to me that Americans should punish South Africans so severely, when racism was alive and well in their own backyards. Just because racism is not part of the constitution does not mean that it is not rife in this country.

My next bone of contention is the ludicrous suggestion that Europeans accept high taxes so as not to be like the ãgreedy Americans.ä It is true that Europeans put up with high taxation and a more intervening government, but it is not the case that they are willing to do so for Mr. Daleâs reasons. In return for their cooperation, Europeans receive a more reasonable health care system, better public transportation, and a superior education than this nation with its ãbelief in the ability of the individual.ä

Surely these reasons seem more logical than sheer bloody mindedness.

I shall end by saying that perhaps our misguided Mr. Dale should look closer to home for a dose of hypocrisy before attacking other nations. But then what do I know. Being European, Iâm probably ãtoo coked up to care.ä

Allison King
linguistics and anthropology junior

Likins doesnât deserve raise

Nice to see that Mr. Likins is going to get a raise. In fact, letâs incentivize everyone who has played a role in getting us into the current budget crisis.

It is so refreshing to see that the practice of rewarding mediocrity persists in the state institution. You see, every so often, those of us who are employed in the real world take comfort in knowing that when the pressure of private sector competition becomes to much to handle, there is always a job waiting in fantasy land... A mystical place where ineptitude equals promotion and competence fights for oxygen under the weight of middle management.

Bruce A. Munroe
Class of â93
Former Louieâs Lower Level supervisor