Universities need more money from Legislature

It should come as no surprise to any alumni, employees, faculty, staff, students or friends of the university that once again the illustrious leadership of the Arizona Legislature is considering no increase to the impending 2005 budget, despite Gov. Napolitano's requests.

When are Arizona voters going to stand up and scream "no more"? We vote these people into office; they are our representatives and yet we continue to bend over and say, "Please sir, may I have another?" When is everyone going to realize that this state is in serious jeopardy when it comes to higher education? We need some serious financial help to climb out of the gutter when it comes to pitiful salaries, laughable availability of courses, loss of faculty due to salary issues and, let's not forget, that myriad of other "petty" problems that each of us on this campus faces on a daily basis. Sure K-12 funding is getting better, but where are these students supposed to go when they graduate from high school? Do we want to not have any more state universities - would this help balance the precious budget some?

The members of the Joint Legislative Budget Committee are all up for reelection in 2005. Let's tell Reps. Russell Pearce, Andy Biggs, Tom Boone, Eddie Farnsworth, Phil Lopes, Linda Lopez and John Loredo and Sens. Bob Burns, Timothy Bee, Jack Brown, Robert Cannell, Slade Mead, Victor Soltero and Jim Waring that we need some money - and oh yeah, my vote next year does count, and I will remember!

Tonya L. Haymore
university school program coordinator

'UA tuition treadmill' wearing students out

Thanks for the illuminating article in yesterday's Wildcat on the surge in UA students turning to loans. Here's how this little vicious cycle seems to work: The UA administration aggressively hikes tuition to "remain competitive." Students borrow record amounts to pay for these hikes. Campus construction and boondoggle landscaping projects continue

unabated while faculty leave and courses are canceled. Finally, the UA cries poor and asks the state Legislature for a few million bucks to pay its underpaid faculty and staff. The state Legislature says no and President Likins justifies another tuition hike. Whew - I sure am glad I graduated from the "UA tuition treadmill."

Stu H. Williams
UA alumnus

Alumni Plaza builders don't have priorities

What a waste of time and energy, what a waste of money, what a way to show students that the UA could care less about them. You can probably guess what I'm talking about: the Alumni Plaza - just another way for good old Pete Likins and his cronies to show us students that we don't matter. Someone tell me what it is we get out of this besides a place to sit while we fill out add/drop forms for overcrowded classes and rue our monetary rape by the bookstore. Once again the students get the short end of the stick. Alumni don't want to go to some plaza when they come back to campus. They want to go to the bars they used to hang out at. Why look at a brick with someone else's name on it when you can toss back a cold one with your friends from years past? The time, effort and money that is being spent on this ridiculously pointless endeavor to kiss alumni ass would be better used to, oh, I don't know ... benefit the students! We are what make this the UA, we are the reason that the UA and its staff have jobs, we are the people that should be getting the benefit of our money, not alumni. Think about that, Pete: You are merely a cog in our machine.

Nick Harrison
psychology and business junior

Bush-Hitler analogy used often in politics

In response to Mr. Okin's column yesterday: This is an example of a typical Republican double standard. When Clinton was is office, you could say what you wished about the president; when Bush is up, you shut your mouth or be accused of "anti-Americanism" at best, punishable-by-death treason at worst. Hitler-based hyperbole is commonplace in politics. How many times has Rush Limbaugh used the phrase "feminazis" or, better yet, "Hitlery Clinton"? More recently, how about Ralph Peters, in the New York Post last week (owned by the same exceptionally balanced people who control Fox News) referring to Howard Dean as "Herr Howie" and likening his supporters to "Hitler's brownshirts"? The latter example was an accepted op-ed in a widely distributed newspaper; MoveOn.org's Hitler piece was a "viewer submission," which is not evidence that the organization condones it (though I do not question that it does so).

The Bush-Hitler comparison is older than MoveOn's popularity; it started with the aggressive, Sept. 11-sparked "War on Terror." Recall that Hitler used a "terrorist" bombing as a springboard for his own unpleasantries, which included war in the name of defense and suppression of civil liberties ("free speech zones"???). Our war on Afghanistan has not improved its condition, and our war with Iraq, which Mr. Okin contends has increased national security and brought "true democracy" to the Iraqis, hasn't quite delivered. First, Iraq was never a threat to the U.S., a point that would seem quite obvious by now. As for "true democracy," wasn't there just a call for free elections in Iraq that the U.S. all but rejected? To further the point, didn't Bush also recently refuse to support Taiwan in their struggle for "true democracy"? My point is, the Hitler comparison is likely out of line, but that should apply across the board. Further, the comparison may not be completely without some superficial merit, as I believe it has yet to be seen whether our wars are of "liberation" or aggression and resource acquisition (more likely Hitler's original goal). If the U.S. allows the free elections, I'll believe the former. If the U.S. clogs the transitional government with puppets who promptly sell the rights to Iraqi resources to Western investors before proper elections, I think even Mr. Okin will have to question the motivations for war, or tighten his blinders.

Christopher Haney
environmental microbiology graduate student