Tuition survey shows signs of bias

This is in reference to the article "Administration, ASUA seek students' views on tuition."

This survey is biased. You can obviously tell what the Associated Students of the University of Arizona wants to spend the increased revenue on: technology and a library update. They dedicated two questions to these two things, completely avoiding the other possible choices, like increasing class availability.

I am opposed to any tuition increase, only because the tuition was raised every semester since I started school in the fall of 2003. It was my understanding that we had already accomplished this goal, as per the Daily Wildcat article "Likins will ask Regents for $500 tuition increase" which states: "President Peter Likins has wanted to raise UA's tuition to about 34th in the country. ... The increase would bring full-time resident undergraduate tuition to about $4,090, the same as the University of Kansas, which charges the 34th-highest tuition among the top 50 senior public universities this year."

What I would like is for Likins to provide a set tuition and stick with it. I am tired of the tuition increasing every year at an inconsistent rate. Maybe if Likins cut his salary in half, we could have all of the things that the ASUA wants for the university.

Ross Richard
environmental science senior

Democrats' opposition to Social Security

Democrats, yet again, are opposing, for their own political purposes, a proposal that is in the best interests of the American people. In continuing their ongoing effort to disagree with everything and anything President Bush says or does, Democrats are attempting to kick the increasing problem of Social Security reform down the road to our generation.

Instead of coming up with their own plan, all they have done is attack President Bush. His plan calls for voluntary personal retirement accounts that you can either choose to participate in or not. No one is telling you what to do. The only solution I've heard from Democrats came from Young Democrats President Alicia Cybulski on KOLD this past Wednesday. She actually suggested that we raise the retirement age! That's great, let's make people pay into the system for a longer period and then not have the opportunity to get most of the money back. Genius.

As President Bush has stated, African-Americans have a shorter life expectancy than other races. So, by raising the retirement age, you are almost certainly denying benefits from a vast majority of individuals. We wouldn't even be in this position if Democrats did not continually spend money on useless pork projects. Exactly how many buildings does Robert Byrd need to have named after him in West Virginia, Alicia?

Unless changes are made now, I have a better chance of landing a date with Jennifer Love Hewitt than seeing Social Security remain strong for future generations. Pete Seat
theatre arts senior

Tolerance poorly defined in column

I was not surprised to see that those claiming to be tolerant of all and accepting of diversity on this campus are the first to be intolerant of intolerance. This seems to be a common thread of postmodern thinkers and those who claim they want to live in coexistence with all creeds, faiths and lifestyles. At the first hint of difference of opinion with this belief of "tolerance," people become offended.

Actually, by definition, tolerance is usually associated with "putting up with error," not "being accepting of all views." Tolerance is closely associated with truth, so if someone does not believe that there is absolute truth and claims to possess tolerance, there is an incongruous correlation here. We don't tolerate what we enjoy or approve of; we tolerate what we disapprove of or what we believe to be false and erroneous. If there were no disagreement, there could not be tolerance.

Therefore, must there be this dichotomy of "acceptance" associated with the non-religious and "intolerance" linked to the religious? From my own experience, these characteristics can be seen in both groups, just as the author of the article says that morality can be found in both. I applaud Damion LeeNatali for at least listening to "Peter," even if in a criticizing way. However, perhaps it would be more congruent with his ideology not to close off his mind to those with closed minds. As Paul Copan says, "True tolerance grants people the right to dissent."

Corrie Panganiban
biochemistry freshman

Students need to take personal responsibility

This is a response to both Greg Stanek's article titled "UAPD needs to be more present on campus" in Monday's Wildcat as well as the current State Department's warning regarding travel to Mexico. While these topics seem to be unrelated, they are both related to encouraging students to allow fear to control their lives and encouraging them not to take responsibility for their own actions.

Here is some basic advice for students and others: Stop depending on the police, stop depending on travel warnings, stop depending on parents and start taking responsibility for your own actions. Travel can be as safe or as dangerous as you make it to be, whether in Mexico, in Pakistan or walking down Speedway Boulevard at noon.

Stanek complains that there are not enough police officers patrolling the campus. Yet, at the same time, all people seem to want is to have someone else give them a "warning" or to have someone else do "patrolling" for them. Students, as the "leaders of tomorrow," should act like leaders. Take responsibility for your own actions and stop allowing fear to control your lives. Please, get in a car and do the patrolling yourself. Look out for a neighbor. Care about other people. Stop leaving everything up to someone else. Likewise, the travel warnings are little more than teaching 3-year-old children "stranger danger."

Mexico is not any more dangerous than any other country as long as tourists know what they are doing and exhibit sound judgment. What is dangerous is not having a lack of police patrolling campus or criminals on the border, but instead a glut of adults in our society too scared to take personal responsibility for their own safety.

Eric Austin
engineering physics sophomore

United States has lost spirit of activism

Not too long ago, there was a PBS documentary about the political movements of the 1960s, which so eloquently laid out the case that all of the different groups which were struggling for change at the time eventually became umbrella'd under the antiwar movement, and also eventually faded into a splintering and solidifying of these same groups. From across it came the unifying theme that too much corporate influence was molding federal government policy to serve its own prerogatives.

At the core of this unifying theme was a thing called the draft. For some reason, an increasingly educated public didn't take too kindly to the notion of dying for an industrial entity of any damn sort. Wasn't it the rubber industry that was the grand puppeteer behind Vietnam?

This is the line that we must draw with Mr. Bush or whatever corporation is behind him. But I really hope he tries. It'll help to resurrect a spirit of activism that died on June 6, 1968.

John L. Feier
accounting senior

Zona Zoo lottery doesn't allow passion

It's a disgrace that we've had a premier basketball program for almost 20 years, and the university won't provide a unified student section at basketball games. For now, we've had some semblance of a student section. However, we don't really show our pride. I believe that there are plenty of people on campus who are passionate about athletics, jumping at the idea of a unified student section. However, the whole Zona Zoo lottery system is flawed and doesn't reward the most passionate fans. Anyone who purchases the sports pass is eligible for the lottery and is picked at random. It's a terrible system and as a result, there's a multitude of students at games that don't care as much about the team and don't know how to act in a student section.

What we need to do is learn from Washington, who ironically knows how to run a ticket system and has only been an elite team for one year. We need to terminate the Zona Zoo lottery system and have people either line up for season tickets or have a call-in system. That way the people who really want to attend games can go. Next, we have a general admission student section, similar to football, and have the whole lower section near the court behind the baskets. First come, first served for the best seats for that particular game. This way, people would come with a group of friends and not just one, making a better, unified student atmosphere. If there's too high of a demand, then having solely individual game tickets would give everyone a chance to see a game every year. The idea here is to reward the passionate fans. If we establish a fun student atmosphere, then that will draw the interest of the casual fan as well.

Dan Pritchard
business economics junior

Pro-choicers don't understand pro-lifers

Yet again the debate about abortion has flared up in the opinions section of the Wildcat. I have yet to ever see a pro-choice letter acknowledge the opposing side as anything but anti-woman, ignorant or old-fashioned. I understand the pro-choice view: it is a woman's body and should be her decision. However, I am 100 percent pro-life because abortion is murder! It is the extinguishing of a human life. My decision to be pro-life has nothing to do with women's rights and everything to do with the right of the child in the womb. I understand the resistance to the idea of the government telling you what you can or cannot do with your body. If you are of age and want to drink, smoke, or pierce your body, please do so, but your rights end at the other person's body. The fact that they can't scream "NO" yet doesn't mean their rights should be ignored.

Jereme Bintz
political science senior

KAMP needs exposure

In response to last semester's brief features about KAMP student radio being streamed at PSU, I want to express great gratitude and joy. Any change toward putting the school in the hands of its own students is a good one. Our radio station is run completely by students and specifically those who care enough about musical expression to voluntarily dedicate their time to the broadcasting of quality and diverse music to the rest of the student community. KAMP deserves the support of all of us. Let's stream it from the Student Union balconies! This is students hearing students. Let's soak up their brilliant contributions.

Nicole Sanderson
environmental sciences sophomore