Alumni should put money toward new dorms

If the Alumni Association really wants to improve the university campus, they should leave what's left of the once-beautiful Mall alone and use their money to construct a new residence hall. They can call it "Alumni Hall." More residence space is what's needed -- not more destruction of the Mall.

Kathleen McCabe
parent and spouse of alumni

Budget cut answer 'doesn't require omniscience'

Concerning the editorial on Budget Cut Rhetoric: Come on! Give President Likins a break. The answer to the question about the number of class sections cut varies week by week and sometimes day by day (how many students are at UA varies day by day). A TA gets sick and students from his or her section are divided among other sections; a class is overcrowded so it is split in two; etc.

For official reporting and analysis, we standardize student counts with a "census" file pulled on the 21st day of class. We don't change that data after that day, so the answer is the same whenever you ask the same question.

The number of lost classes cannot be standardized in that way because it is about changes over time, and more changes will come. Nor do we know the reasons for the changes. Was this change a normal low-enrollment consolidation or a budget-cut one? Some cuts may have been decided but not processed. When the president asked for a report, the deans had to include planned cuts as well as processed ones.

What Likins got was a preliminary report. When he answered the question, he had to answer with preliminary data. The university can't know the final answer on lost classes until the last day of class.

The issue is not whether Likins is omniscient - your editorial implied he should be; the issue is how much damage will be done by budget cuts and more cuts. The answer to that doesn't require omniscience.

John L. Wilson
director, UA Decision & Planning Support

More Middle East news coverage needed

I found Dr. Sheldon Clare's emotionally charged letter directed at Armand Navabi's original letter quite saddening. In that original letter Armand had asked for a more balanced coverage of the original Israeli-Palestinian conflict. In my opinion, more coverage of the Middle East is needed, period.

The Wildcat should take the lead and dedicate a half page or even a whole page to each nation in the region and provide a background and analysis. The UA has excellent faculty resources that can contribute to these articles. I know that to do justice, volumes may be required on each nation, but dedicated columns are a start. We still live in a society where journalism has to compete with "Survivor," "Temptation Island," "Elima-Date" and CNN-style news reporting which too often confines itself to one-sided, repetitive sound bites accompanied by graphic images.

I was saddened by Dr. Clare's comments because, in my mind, it reflected the seemingly never-ending cycle of tit-for-tat accusations and recriminations while the destruction of property and lives marches on. The only way to a just and lasting peace between the two parties is for them to sit down and talk. I would rather see meetings that may be accompanied by fistfights than senseless violence resulting in innocent lives lost on either side. Despite what Dr. Clare may believe, the struggle for political, social and cultural freedom has been an ongoing event in all parts of the Middle East. In Iran, many have died or are still in jails in their struggle for a more representative government. As a result, many reformers were elected to the parliament and now lead their own painful struggle to provide a more free and equitable society. The Kurdish struggle for self-governance is another example and there are countless more that we all will hopefully be reading about in a dedicated Wildcat column.

Omid Mahdavi
BME graduate student