Editor,
As a former student of UNM and an employee at the North Golf Course, I have a special kinship to the school and the golf course. For two 1/2 years, I spent a few hours of my day at the course washing carts. It wasn't a hard job, but it was a way for me to acquire a little extra cash and still be able to do well in school.
The North Golf Course was a great place to be employed, but the best part about working there was the chance to meet different people and create new relationships. Truly, one of the best parts of playing golf is the business and personal relationships that stem from the game. Everybody from undergraduates to tenured professors are a part of the close-knit group that plays regularly at the course.
I know that money is always at a premium for public universities. However, the greatest part of a university is the community the campus fosters. So, the question is whether the revenue earned is worth the lack of community in the University.
The history of the North Golf Course is abundant. Walk into the pro-shop and look on the walls, and you can see it for yourself. An old wrinkled scorecard hangs in a frame displaying the score of the late Babe Zaharias, the great female golfer who played at the course. There are many of these stories all over the pro-shop and course itself if one looks hard enough.
I've since graduated and moved on to a different state on the East Coast where land is expensive and hard to find. Even in these large eastern seaboard cities, it is established that green space is a priority and will be kept safe from residential or commercial development at all costs. Some of these areas are historical but most just increase the esteem of the community.
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This is what bothers me most about the development plan. Land in the Albuquerque metro area is still available and still inexpensive. Why is it so important to tear up a golf course in the middle of campus that gives so many people a great experience every day?
I truly hope that the president of UNM will think of alternative revenue sources and save an important part of the University campus for generations to come.
Dustin Lee
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