Budget cuts once again affect 'excellence' plan

The hypocrisy of the UA administration is simply inexcusable. The push for "focused excellence" in academics has resulted in another unfortunate casualty. The 2003 Summer Session Excellence in Teaching Awards were not announced in November (as usual), and now Beth Acree, senior program coordinator for Summer Session, says there are no plans to present the awards because of the reorganization of the Extended University under the current budgetary cutbacks and department mergers. Last summer, hundreds of students nominated their instructors for their perceived "excellence" in the classroom. Now it turns out that this administration will ignore them, and the passionate teachers who inspired and motivated them. This kind of negligence surely will not lead to "focused excellence," but rather to "diffuse mediocrity."

Tom Cuevas
UA alumnus

Gays are not 'behind closed doors' in Tucson

Yesterday's Wildcat featured a column by Daniel Scarpinato arguing that Tucson's gay community is still "behind closed doors." This is a totally false and misleading statement. The UA has a school-funded Pride Alliance, and every residence hall and faculty department has "safe zone" signs where gays can go to speak about their issues. The UA also hosts celebrations, such as Drag Day and national Coming Out Day. As if this is not enough, Tucson also hosts a number of nightspots that cater to gays and lesbians. And Tucson itself hosts such organizations as Wingspan, which caters solely to the younger gay community. This false notion that gays outside of IBT's are "harassed" is purely fiction. I encourage all those at the UA to go to IBT's and see for yourself (it's free to get in) - go see if you get harassed and beat up by anti-gays, because that won't happen. The most that will happen is you might get sexually harassed by someone whistling at you as they drive by, but that's not the kind of alleged daily harassment Mr. Scarpinato was talking about. The gay community in Tucson is out, it's everywhere and Tucson is very tolerant and open. We should be proud of what we have rather than increasingly insistent on more and more government-sponsored avenues for gay pride.

Seth Frantzman
UA alumnus

Tucson should welcome homosexual community

This letter is in response to Daniel Scarpinato's column titled, "Tucson needs to come out of the closet." In this column, Scarpinato explains how Tucson is a "counter-culture" and doesn't open up to the diverse population, especially the gay population.

All I can say is, damn straight.

Over the years, the American people have refused to embrace diversity and rejected different cultures. And over the years, we have slowly tried to fix those problems. Then why do we leave gays out of the loop? They are still people, not some evil cult. They are a people who have chosen to be different in their sexuality.

And why can't we accept that? Hate crimes, such as the recent attack on Mark Fontes behind a popular gay bar on Fourth Avenue, are moving us away from a community that accepts all forms of culture. Many people will say it's wrong to be gay because of religious beliefs. Others will say it just is because it's not normal. So I ask: What is normal? Being like everyone else? Nothing is really normal; normal is just a word we use to put ourselves in a different group than other people.

So, instead of saying gays are not like us, like regular people, instead of saying the gay community deserves fewer rights than other people, instead of rejecting them, welcome them. Say hello!

Alan Fullmer
journalism freshman

Dean, not Clark, best choice for nomination

Gen. Wesley Clark is not the best choice for the Democratic nomination. Clark does have an impressive military resumŽ, and he has said some good things.

The problem is that Clark has never voted as a matter of public record, nor has he ever even signed a bill.

We have no way to know what he would actually do when in office.

When I go to the polls in November, I want to know that the person I am voting for has a solid record and can back up his promises with proven actions rather than just "great speeches."

This is why I will vote for Howard Dean. Dean was governor of Vermont for over 11 years. While in office, he balanced Vermont's budget, raised the minimum wage twice, provided health insurance for nearly every Vermonter and implemented education and environmental reform that made Vermont one of the best places to raise children in the country.

Dean proved that he is a leader when he signed Vermont's controversial Civil Unions Bill, granting same-sex couples the right to unite and giving them many of the benefits of marriage. The bill was polling at 29 percent.

Dean was six months outside of an election. His advisors said it would be political suicide to sign it. It didn't even need his signature to pass, since it was mandated by the state Legislature.

He signed it anyway, while wearing body armor to protect him from the death threats he received.

He signed it, not because it was politically expedient, in spite of the fact that it might hurt his career-but because it was the right thing to do.

Dean has proven his leadership and his record time and time again. When you go to the polls Feb. 3, as I hope you will, keep this in mind:

Any of the candidates for the Democratic nomination will be better than our current president, but if you want a proven leader, the obvious choice, for record, for leadership and for willingness to stand up to the Bush administration, is Howard Dean.

Jonna Lopez
women's studies senior