Kunnie case an example of UAPD Īracial discrimination'

I find the blatant racism expressed in Monday's letter from Stefan Walz shocking. Whatever your opinions of Dr. Kunnie's past statements, I hope you are able to realize that the publication of any amount of potentially inflammatory material does not give law enforcement officials justification for holding him at gunpoint for a crime with which he had no connection. Had the suspect UAPD was looking for been "a white man with hair," would the first person they saw who fit this description immediately have had a gun drawn on him? And, Mr. Walz, would you suggest that Dr. Kunnie find a "township where the authorities would get off his back" if he were any other race? It is exactly the freedoms and laws Mr. Walz refers to ÷ freedom of speech, illegality of racial discrimination ÷ which are currently being systematically ignored and violated. And Dr. Kunnie's case is just one example of what is becoming a frighteningly frequent practice by those in power. [Read article]

Keren G. Raz, in her April 7th in-depth article, "Campus construction, tuition pays off debts," did an admirable job covering the complex subject of how the university funds its acquisition of capital facilities. However, some additional clarification might well be helpful to your readers.

Late in the article, it is noted that our current annual total debt service is $52 million, or about 4 percent of our $1.2 billion annual operating budget ÷ that is well under our legal debt limit of 8 percent. Tuition certainly provides an important source of funds to retire debt; however, it is clearly not the only source. While tuition contributes $20.6 million, the self-supporting Auxiliaries carry $21.7 million, Indirect Cost Recovery from our research enterprise pays $8.2 million, the Technology Research Initiative Fund gives $1.0 million and Investment Income and Administrative Service Charge pick up the remaining $.5 million. [Read article]

Today is the first day of the next tax year. While most citizens dread the onset of April 15, city, county, state and federal agencies and programs depend on the yearly revenue. Currently, the U.S. Congress is dynamically debating the Bush Administration's tax cut that will be in the neighborhood of hundreds of billions of dollars. For some, the function of taxes is the hot issue that completely defines where someone falls on the political spectrum. [Read article]