Opinion

Center necessary for connecting students, administration

Editor, I am in my fourth year at UNM, and over the years I have become all too familiar with the unbearably long lines (that at least I could avoid by taking a number, going to class and then coming back to Financial Aid only to wait another half hour before service), the miscommunication that often ensues between myself, the Financial Aid Office, the Scholarship Office and Cashier Department, and, finally, with the boisterous bureaucratic bumblings of misinformed, ill-mannered and unfriendly higher-ups at Student Services.

Moving Student Services will make bad service even worse

Editor, This University's inability to properly gauge the needs of its students has again been demonstrated in the recent mass e-mail sent in response to an article concerning the new Student Success Center. Is the University seriously suggesting that creating such a facility as this one mile from campus will help students? Off the top of my head, I can point out several problems.

Moving Student Services Center a step in the wrong direction

Editor, As an alumna and current staff member, the proposed move of the Student Services Center off campus seems to not be considering all of the impacts on students, staff and faculty. While I don't disagree that a more coordinated approach to handling our relationship with students would be beneficial, moving Student Services off campus addresses the space issue of how to get these services integrated, but it leaves out the most important piece: service to students.

Primary services should be available on Main Campus

Editor, It is absolutely ridiculous to move the Financial Aid and Scholarship offices off Main Campus. Main Campus is the flagship of the University, and all of its student services should be available there. These services should be located in a convenient place where most of the students are.

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La Posada should reconsider its 'tray-less days' policy

Editor, If you regularly eat at the La Posada cafeteria, you will have noticed the signs on the doors for "tray-less days," which entails making everyone go without a tray for at least one day of the week. No trays; you carry your own plate. According to the signs, it will save food and lower energy costs and water use given the fact that they will have less to wash.

Improved Olympic doping has created athletic abominations

Editor, Although the Beijing Olympics are over, their many abominations are not. Twenty years after the 1988 Seoul Olympics doping scandal, athletes around the world still say that if Canadian sprint star Ben Johnson had been a U.S. athlete, he would have kept his gold medal.

Loyalty, unity necessary for success of UNM sports programs

Editor, Welcome to the social event of the season: the gathering of goal-oriented goal-getters. Welcome to a Saturday on South Campus: a Lobo football game. I come from the Northeast. It's a place where sports loyalty is fundamentally established. So it came as a shock to me when I found an overall lack of enthusiasm toward the game's outcome.

McCain's experience, character make him a better candidate

Editor, One issue being discussed this presidential election is John McCain's age. McCain is 72 years old. Some people see McCain's age as a negative or even a disqualifying attribute. On the contrary, I see it as a tremendously positive attribute for leading the U.

Taxpayers will feel the pinch from Wall Street bailout

Editor, Who will pay for the bailout? Less than two weeks ago, John McCain and Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson declared the fundamentals of our economy were sound. Now, American taxpayers are told we must pay the bill to bail out financial institutions that have recently failed or are failing at a price likely to exceed $1 trillion.

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Column: Sport offers hope to disabled

Saturday morning, all students are invited to Johnson Gym. An Albuquerque community team of professional basketball players will provide inspiration to students with lower-limb disabilities. Starting this weekend, the Albuquerque Kings will coach disabled men and women students in wheelchair basketball.

Column: Volunteers useless without money

The College Democrat leadership is similar to Barack Obama in two ways: Both take an inordinate amount of credit for a lackluster set of accomplishments, and both compensate for these inadequacies by attacking the accomplishments of those who are more successful than themselves.

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Palin's nomination a cynical slap in face to women voters

Editor, I love the hypocrisy the neocons have shown in their pathetic scramble to portray vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin as qualified. They have been reduced to claiming that having five children should be more than enough to qualify her for the second most powerful position in the free world.

With Obama, students would be rewarded for volunteer work

Editor, I was searching for information on the presidential candidates' positions on higher education, where I have worked for 14 years in New Mexico. I was disappointed with the Albuquerque Journal's coverage on higher education, which sent me to the candidates' Web sites.

Ask Dr. Peg

Dear Dr. Peg, I spend a lot of time in a lab standing up doing experiments. My back gets sore and so do my feet. Do you have any suggestions? Dear science student, We may have evolved from four-legged to two-legged creatures, but I think our backs are still catching up.

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A McCain administration would put end to reproductive rights

Editor, Margaret Sanger's son, Grant, was in my father's Columbia University Medical School classes. His name would be broadcast into the hallways, that he was "needed again to go to jail and bail out your mother." The young medical students cheered for her good cause.