Students should see the world beyond Îsecurity of Old Main'

To all of the current UA students, I just had a small question to put to your minds. Do you understand the severity of the current political atmosphere? I understand that right now you all are plagued with tuition hikes, sports victories and the thought of where to go for spring break, but since I have graduated and entered the "real world" I have realized three things to be true: bills, taxes and politics. Do any of you know what is happening, and not because you had to for Professor Mishler's (political science) class?

On Wednesday, Colin Powell, U.S. Secretary of State, spoke to the United Nations for 75 minutes. He constructed a major circumstantial case against Iraq for violating Resolution 1441 and endangering the world with (its) possession of chemical, biological and possible nuclear weapons. VX gas (yes the same one from the movie The Rock), anthrax, botulinum toxin, aflatoxin, and ricin are just a few of the agents he has mass-produced to terrorize the world with. (And if any of you look up the effects of these horrific killers you will see why I am now writing to you).

I have read few articles and columns in the Arizona Daily Wildcat that deal with this issue. It is a sad state of affairs if none of you have raised the issue of war yourselves yet. I realize that as a student the only thing that you truly worry about are your grades, your social life and your incoming cash flow. But your friends, brothers, neighbors and innocent strangers are now being sent to protect you.

I just wanted to know how many of you even realized what is going on outside the security of Old Main.

Heather Roff
UA alumnus 2001

Iraq leaves U.N. no choice, time to support our troops

Wednesday morning I watched Secretary of State Colin Powell present some of America's evidence against Iraq before the United Nations Security Council. Before the presentation I knew Iraq had been in violation of Resolution 1441. The evidence, although not much, clearly shows that Iraq is in non-compliance. I was especially astonished by the tapped phone conversations Secretary Powell presented. My main worry is how some members, namely France and Germany, continue to say that this is not enough evidence, that we should give the inspectors more time.

How much more time do we need? Time enough for terrorists to spread anthrax in Paris? Time for Iraq to give terrorists smallpox to infect Berlin? How many more times are we going to allow Saddam Hussein to stick his thumb out at the U.N.? More than a dozen times the U.N. has called for Iraq to disarm, and it has not. Resolution was designed to be his last chance; if he failed to comply Iraq would suffer the consequences.

I believe that if the U.N. fails to act on Iraq, and soon it will be irrelevant and go the way of the League of Nations, it will be an organization that talks that talk, but cannot and will not walk the walk. I believe that the U.N. will come to its senses on this issue, and France will get in line with the United States and not veto a resolution; France's deployment of their only nuclear carrier is evidence of this. Saddam knows this, and this is why he continues to defy the U.N., he is a master at brinkmanship and a survivalist.

The time to act is now. We must remove Saddam. I wish, hope and pray that it did not have to come to this because the fight in Baghdad is going to be very costly on both sides, but I feel Saddam has not given us choice anymore. So in closing, hate the war if you want, but support our troops, support the British troops, or any allied troops, so that they may rejoin their families once again.

George Bravo
political science sophomore

Focused Excellence cuts are actually Îfocused sacrifices'

With the upcoming major tuition increases headed our way, it's unfortunate that the powers-to-be are looking to balance the books on the backs of the students. As a former full-time employee, I recall the automatic pay increases given across the board to the non-faculty staff, raises based not on merit but bureaucracy.

Instead of Focused Excellence, we have focused sacrifices. Are the non-merit pay raises still continuing? I don't know. But what I do know is that no university leader is asking for even a token sacrifice from the full-time employees (other than those losing their departments).

If the students are going to take a hard hit, how about a 1 percent pay cut for all employees, full-time and part-time, faculty and student, administrators and athletic coaches? Probably a minor drop in the bucket for our budget woes, but the demonstration of team unity would be refreshing.

Sean Duffy
history Ph.D. student

ÎRookie' sports writer has knowledge and personality

I have to say that while reading the Tuesday Arizona Daily Wildcat, I never thought that I would find a sports writer such as Shane Bacon. It seems that this young rookie has entered the journalist circuit with full force and no one is there to stop him. Both his knowledge for golf and his envious personality has created a creative short game for the Wildcat, which could be compared to the likes of Phil Mickelson. It's obvious to see Mr. Bacon's diligence and commitment to the game and I would like to see more of Mr. Bacon's columns.

Nick Madrid
freshman majoring in Spanish and Portuguese

Don't consult Îkings' of war when looking for peace

Can you hear them turning in their graves ÷ the soldiers, the citizens, the innocent bystanders who have been punished by standing in the wake of war? Punished for not knowing how terrible one king's war can be. Many of those lives taken were too young. Younger by far, than the men sounding the battle horns. At this time we look for peace with Iraq, so why do we consult experts of war? Why not experts of living, communication, and respect? And these "experts," with their white hair and knuckles, eagerly calculating blood-thirsty equations of human carnage ÷ what do they know? They are only experts of pain, experts of death. The true experts of war are dead. Why don't we consult them? Not the ones buried, but the ones among us living, but not alive. The war didn't take their lives. No, the war cruelly took only their souls. They walk this earth as vagabond zombies.

Why don't we ask them what the best war strategy is for peace? Who dares ask them that question? It should be the king. But we all know that will never happen. No, those kings, with their experts and investments to maintain will arrogantly sacrifice the children they were sworn to protect, as they have always done. They will tell these children stories about the heroes they will become by letting a bullet rip through their stomach, or by marching through a field of land mines, or by taking another child's life. When you die in war, hero is just a euphemism for victim. But don't worry. The kings of destruction will get theirs too. There is a special hell for them. Unfortunately, many of their victims won't get the benefit of the king's suffering, as he will outlive all of his children. So until then, until the day all of the cruel and greedy kings in the world die their slow, royal deaths ÷ the victims of their wars are turning in their graves. Can you hear them?

Jacki Lopez
planning graduate student

Department elimination is hardly ÎFocused Excellence'

After two Town Halls to address the issue of eliminating various departments, it seems that UA President Likins and Provost Davis did not want to listen to responses and forced their reasoning onto students whose departments are to be eliminated. Also, these two officials made veiled attacks against the departments that are going to be eliminated, and do not seem to want to give these departments a chance to survive. It is time to respond to their arguments for department elimination.

President Likins made continued reference that the departments that are to be eliminated are not world-class departments. For the department I am in, we have Dr. Krider, creator of the lightening detection network that is used worldwide. We have Dr. Kursinski, whose research helped put a UA probe onto a shuttle bound for Mars that analyzed its atmosphere. Not world-class in Likins' opinion, but I digress.

President Likins hammered the point that the departments he proposes to eliminate are hurting the budget. In the Department of Atmospheric Sciences, we hold a budget of $457,000 a year, but gain $2.1 million through research grants. We actually produce a budget that makes money, yet we hurt the overall UA budget? His response on the Town Hall on Feb. 4 was that it is a, "redirection, but it is not intended to be a disrespectful rebuke."

Lastly, Likins stated that our department "will be more effective if you can just get past this change." What Likins must have sincerely forgotten was that this change involves our department being eliminated. How does that make our department better? The obvious response would be that it will not make our department better. So much for "Focused Excellence."

Stephen W. Bieda, III
atmospheric sciences senior

Eller deserves appreciation for his UA contributions

Kendrick Wilson's meandering editorial column of Feb. 4, "Sever the arms to save the body", while ostensibly about President Likins' Focused Excellence initiative, reveals itself on second reading to be merely a vehicle for a gratuitous cheap shot at Karl Eller, whose name is attached to our College of Business and Public Administration. According to Mr. Wilson, "Anyone who believes in public education should be sickened that our business school is named after its chief donor, Karl Eller." He makes this declaration because Mr. Eller has been involved in, among many other enterprises, the billboard business.

As is anyone, Mr. Wilson is entitled to his own opinion about billboards, but the billboard business engaged in by Mr. Eller is perfectly legal and acceptable, and his products have been used by countless respectable businesses and causes. What is, in fact, sickening is that Mr. Wilson would make such a mean-spirited ÷ ignorant, too, perhaps, but mean-spirited nonetheless ÷ attack upon one of the university's most loyal alumni and most generous benefactors; a man who, in his role as Co-Chair of Campaign Arizona, is helping that campaign to raise at least $1 billion in gifts to make the university an even better place ÷ and thereby to enhance further the value of Mr. Wilson's UA degree. The university, Campaign Arizona, the Arizona Daily Wildcat, and especially Karl Eller deserve far better than Mr. Wilson's thoughtless hatchet job on a fine man.

Thomas Sanders
UA alumnus 1966, 1974
executive director, Campaign Arizona

Presentation of students' drinking habits Îsub-par'

A recent advertisement produced on the behalf of the Campus Health Center, and displayed in the Monday issue of the Wildcat, suggest that in the past month 85 percent of all UA students have not participated in drunken driving. This leaves 15 percent, or an estimated 4,500 inebriated degenerates who attempt to recreate the climax scene in Mad Max, every weekend.

If this is the mainstay of persuasive logic, why don't we lower the driving age to 15, or maybe 14, thus decreasing my odds of being taken out. Is drunken driving seen as an effective way to slim the already merged academic departments, or simply to decrease the university's bigger problem of over-crowding?

Drunken driving is a huge problem, and the university health center's take is sub-par. The ads must either encompass testimony from those who have been personally affected, or promote alternative means of transportation. Don't make us feel better about not risking someone's life.

Michael Beer and John Drachman
business seniors

Drop Focused Excellence for ÎDiffused Excellence'

I read recently in the Arizona Daily Wildcat regarding his reorganization plans, UA President Likins told a student group that, "We need plans, not slogans." Well, it's about time!

I'm certainly glad to see that he's finally agreed to stop using that stunningly meaningless "Focused Excellence" slogan he's been spouting and agree that the plan is what we all need. In the first place, anybody can see that Diffused Excellence would be far superior to the focused kind.

So, Mr. President, please give us the "Focused Plan." After all the anxiety you have caused, we deserve to see it. Lay it all out along with all of the enrollment, staffing, funding and financial details.

We don't want it in incomprehensible little dribbles. Nobody can comprehend your plan if you give us a department elimination on one day, then a program merger the next day, then a hideous tuition increase the next day. It feels like you're trying to snow us with focused flimflam. We all know that you have a plan and we all know that it isn't in your head in little dribbles.

And please drop the smokescreen that you're asking for comments. Nobody can honestly say what they think until they see the entire picture that you have planned. This isn't up to us, it's up to you.

So, the next time you speak on this topic, simply bring copies of your complete plan with you. Then we'll all have something to talk about without wasting more of each other's time.

And, thanks again for agreeing that we don't need your slogan.

John Kromko
Former State Representative