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Fall Daily Cougar
SUPPORT TEACHERS
TO THE EDITOR:
I am intrigued by the financial manipulations of
the university.
On one hand, there is little money for faculty raises,
and there is no startup money for new faculty — yet the
UH-System can spend $4
million to move to the campus.
I wonder how cost-
effective such a move is
when the cost of space off
campus is about $400,000
per year and to recoup the
moving costs will require 10
years, assuming that no renovations or other changes
are made in that time.
I also wonder how effective the system is as a system. One can question its
very existence. Spinning off
the satellite campuses as independents would save the
cost of the move, the cost of
the system and lead to a better coordination of the central campus because there
would be no need to duplicate financial and other systems.
When faculty raises are
less than the annual cost of
living increase, when a
search for a new department
chairman cannot be initiated because funds are not
available for startup (and no
good scientist will move
without funds for staff and
equipment) when new
courses cannot be implemented because funds for
equipment are not available
— yet funds can be found
for a silly move — there is
something wrong with our
priorities.
The six-year plan for the
university call for 50 percent of departments to be
recognized nationally, but
support of the UH-System
will not produce the result.
Only the faculty can do so.
Why not support them?
Jack H.U. Brown
Professor, Biology
BOOKSTORE UNFAIR
TO THE EDITOR:
So the UH Bookstore is
making a killing in profits,
huh? ("Bookstore sales skyrocket," Oct. 21). I think I
know why. Allow me to cite
an example. Until recently, I
had never purchased plastic
"sheet protectors." I told the
clerk that I would be needing
a whole box of them.
Ten minutes later she came
back and told me that I could
have taken 10 percent of the
original price. I still thought
that 45 cents was expensive
($22.50 per box of 50), but I
went ahead and bought them
anyway.
The next day I needed more
(for my lengthy EDUC report),
so I went to Kwlk-Kopy,
where they were only 20
cents a page. A few week later, I had another report due
and decided to use sheet protectors again. Someone told
me that Sam's Wholesale
Club sold them at an even
cheaper price. Sure enough,
they were only $2.99 for a box
of 50. That's only six cents
each!
While I don't expect our
bookstore to match the prices
of a wholesale club, I also
don't expect our bookstore to
take such an extreme advantage of us students. I, for one
refuse to offer any of my hard-
earned money for items that I
can purchase elsewhere to
this monopoly again. I encourage you to do the same.
Paul "Chip" Herber
Sr., Music Education
STOP HECKLING ME
TO THE EDITOR:
The hecklers at Sen.
Quayle's speech last week
should be ashamed of themselves. Due to the almost incessant chanting, yelling and
screaming on the part of the
hecklers, I was not able to
hear what Sen. Quayle, Gov.
Clements and Rep. Boulter
had to say.
Protesters certainly have
the right to peaceably assemble, to carry posters and to
boo the candidate before the
speech. But protesters do not
have the right to chant, yell or
scream while the candidate is
actually talking. In doing so,
protesters become hecklers
and thus deny both the candidate's right to be heard and
the audience's right to hear
what the candidate has to
say.
Tuesday's heckling episode
reminds one of the many instances over the past several
years where conservatives attempting to deliver speeches
on college campuses have
been shouted down by liberal
students and professors. One
must wonder just how sincerely these particular students and professors really
are committed to practicing
the principles of academic
freedom and free speech they
so vigorously preach.
But heckling is not a partisan issue. As a supporter of
the Bush-Quayle ticket, I have
to admit that some Republicans are equally guilty of violating the free speech rights
of candidates during this
campaign. Regrettably, many
anti-abortion activists have
repeatedly attempted to shout
down Michael Dukakis in several of his campaign appearances in the past few weeks.
Rather, heckling transcends partisan politics and
constitutes a threat to the free
exchange of ideas that is central to our way of electing officeholders. Theoretically at
least, in our representative
democracy, candidates for office come before the people
and deliver speeches. Having
actually heard the arguments
of the candidates, the voters
decide whom they will support. By interrupting candidates' speeches, hecklers undermine this process.
If hecklers should continue
to plague this campus, the
Student Program Board
should consider not inviting
any more candidates to UH.
Instead, we could just open
the football stadium on campus, put all the college Democrats on the left side of the
field, put all the college Republicans on the right side of
the field, give both sides some
megaphones and just let them
shout at each other for a few
hours each week!
Richard Braastad
Post-Baccalaureate
Latin Teacher Education
THE LAST STRAW
TO THE EDITOR:
OK, enough is enough. Tom
Vaughan's letter criticizing
the College Democrats was
the last straw. His criticisms
about rudeness are totally unfounded. This is, after all, an
election that will shape the
future of the next four years;
it is not a tea with the formal
cordialities that go along
with that sort of thing.
The Republicans have
done everything in their
power to avoid talking about
the issues of this campaign
and we will not be pulled into a discussion about whether the College Democrats did
not applaud their speakers
and applauded ours.
There is too much at stake
on November 8 to worry
about whether the Young
Republicans' feelings were
hurt during our debate or
not. Frankly, Mr. Vaughan, I
don't give a damn! The students at UH want to hear
about the issues on both
sides of the fence, not worry
about the table manners of
the debaters. The College
Democrats have been very
civil with the Young Republicans and to ask the audience to remain stately and
stiff may be normal for a Republican event, but Democrats want to get involved
and we will.
This cautious attitude of
the Republicans towards
another debate is understandable since they have
lost each debate they've
been involved in. They've
realized that they cannot
win with the issues that
George Bush has taken a
stand on, because the students at UH are much too
sophisticated to fall for the
shallow rhetoric George has
spewed out in this campaign.
The students want to deal
with real issues that affect
their lives and livelihood.
George Bush has promised
to do for education what
Ronald Reagan has done for
it in the last eight years.
This is one of the more repulsive thoughts that has
hit the college campuses
around the country.
Rising tuition rates, drastic cuts in student grants
and loans, and lower government spending on education, coupled with skyrocketing expenditures for the
military, are the plain facts
that face us today. It is certainly no wonder that the
Republicans don't want to
talk about the issues.
Ian A. de Souza
Sr., Computer Science
Letters to the Editor ■ 277 |
