Opinion - The Daily Lobo

Opinion

Lax admission standards hurt UNM's national rank

August 30

Editor, Despite its status as a Carnegie Tier-One research institution, UNM occupies the third tier of this year's U.S. News rankings. The Princeton Review has dubbed its faculty the most inaccessible. Beyond the rankings, more evidence suggests that UNM is not competing with the nation's select schools as it continues to over-admit unqualified students and over-employ marginal faculty.

Opinion

Residents still neglected two years after Katrina

August 30

Two years after Hurricane Katrina rendered New Orleans a wasteland, the government's promises to allocate billions of dollars have helped little to rebuild the city. The federally funded Road Home program - the irony of the program's name has not been lost on the residents of New Orleans - is yet to make any difference to the wounded landscape, as more than half of the promised $8 billion has not been released.

Opinion

New Orleans dying despite 2 years of reconstruction

August 30

Editor, New Orleans will never be the same. Two forces are halting the reconstruction of New Orleans: the free market economy and the natural risk. Nobody, not even the government, controls these forces. Katrina was the first hurricane; Rita was the second, and how many more are in the future? Scientists are projecting a rise in sea level and an increase in hurricanes and hurricane intensity.

Opinion

UNM administration top-heavy

Richard M. Berthold | August 29

With the passage of time, large organizations, whether public or private, inevitably become more bureaucratic and administratively top-heavy, and the University is certainly no exception. Further, and hardly surprising, compensation grows far more rapidly among those at the top, particularly in academics, where generally cowardly faculty are disinclined to seriously challenge the powers that be.

Opinion

Graffiti on campus conveys ignorance, insults students

August 29

Editor, I appreciate my campus. I enjoy it as an oasis in our desert town - full of green canopies, colorful flowers, as well as appealing and interesting public art. This was, of course, before Friday. While walking to class, I was appalled to see that someone had assaulted my campus - our campus.

Opinion

Democratic Party shouldn't bend the rules for Florida

August 29

Editor, I applaud the Democratic National Committee's recent action toward Florida and the impact of its primary on both the traditional guidelines set forth on the Democratic primary calendar and on the effect it has on small states. The committee had worked out a schedule, greatly reducing the impact of Iowa and New Hampshire without knocking them out of the game.

Opinion

U.S., Iran closer to open conflict

Matthew Chavez | August 28

In the late 1990s, Iran specialist Shahram Chubin predicted that the "all-purpose bogey" the Iranian government found in U.S. foreign policy was a device whose effectiveness at constraining domestic dissent was rapidly waning.

Opinion

Republicans would rather save face than save lives

August 28

Editor, I thought the Grand Old Party had sunk to the bottom of the mucky, mucky barrel when it continued to support the administration's unjustified invasion and occupation of Iraq. After all, this five-year occupation of Iraq has resulted in the deaths of more than 3,000 poor U.

Opinion

University should stay at forefront of sustainability

August 28

Editor, This letter is to congratulate President David Schmidly, the Board of Regents, ASUNM, GPSA, Vice President of Student Affairs Cheo Torres and the SUB for taking steps to make UNM a more sustainable campus. President Schmidly's energy-saving plan is a step in the right direction.

Opinion

Educators should prepare students for globalization

August 28

Editor, I read with interest "India's growth could be costly" by Santhosh Chandrashekar, published in the Daily Lobo on Aug. 20. The column primarily focused on the impact of India's growth on India itself. But the growth of India (and China) will impact all countries practicing free trade.

Opinion

Peer mentoring can help minority students succeed

August 27

Editor, Completing a college degree can be a daunting challenge, especially for people of color and first-generation students who have few, if any, role models in their families and communities. This situation can be exacerbated by a university where 78 percent of the tenure-track faculty are white.

Opinion

University's wastefulness, inefficiency is appalling

August 27

Editor, On a recent evening I went for a run around Johnson Field. After $720,000 was spent on buying and installing new lights, I expect them to be turned on. It was dark and raining fairly hard, but the lights were not turned on. I finished my laps anyway and began the return trip home.

Opinion

Give the Catholic chair a chance to work at UNM

August 27

Editor, In their letters published Thursday, Jay Nelson and Andres Saenz proved my point that personal bias is behind their opposition to the endowed chair in Roman Catholic studies at UNM. Nelson said he opposes the chair because he was abused. Saenz opposes it because he claims the church was to blame for the voices in his head and his depression.

Opinion

Problems with fraternities stem from lack of interest

August 27

Editor, Changes need to happen within fraternities, but they need to be more fundamental than having a live-in adviser or making sensitivity training mandatory for fraternity members. The root of the recent problems with fraternities is numbers. There is a small recruitment pool of students at UNM who are interested in joining fraternities.

Opinion

Daily Lobo should explain why opinions are censored

August 24

Editor, After several years of writing to and being published in the Daily Lobo, I noticed that my postings are no longer being put up. I graduated from the University a year ago. I am a diehard advocate of free speech and will fight for the biggest pillar of our free society, which is rightfully found in college newspapers.

Opinion

Buying textbooks online cheaper than Bookstore

August 24

Editor, I just read the letter "Bookstore strives to make books more affordable" published in Wednesday's Daily Lobo. I found the title itself to be unbelievable. For college students, it all comes down to the price of textbooks. When I first came to UNM in 2002, I bought all my books at the Bookstore.

Opinion

When selecting a major, choose natural interest

August 24

Editor, What subject should I study and what field of work do I want to enter into? What do I value, and what goals do I want to accomplish? How do I grow as a person? These questions can be summed up into one question: What is my vocation? The great Polish linguist, philosopher and theologian Karol Wojtyla, who later became Pope John Paul II, wrote on the subject of vocation in his book Love and Responsibility.

Opinion

Publishers work toward student success, retention

August 24

Editor, The article "Bookstore may not offer best bargains" in Tuesday's Daily Lobo fails to give an accurate description of textbook pricing and options. The reality is that college students have more textbook options available today then ever before. Publishers have responded to cost concerns by expanding options for lower-cost texts, including electronic books, loose-leaf editions, black-and-white editions, abbreviated texts, textbooks by the chapter and customized editions.

Opinion

Catholic chair wouldn't force agenda on students

August 24

The discussion of whether or not UNM should include a chair of Catholic studies is not a question of church and state -- it is a question of whether or not we believe in educating our students of the world around us. It seems perfectly reasonable to have an academic representation of a predominant religious tradition in our University.

Opinion

Untended uranium mines pollute west New Mexico

August 23

Editor, New Mexico calls itself the Land of Enchantment, but if Gov. Richardson, our legisla- tors and environmental regu- lators do not take a stand, we may well become known as the Land of Hazardous Waste and Polluted Water. Uranium min- ing companies are clamoring to begin again operations in New Mexico.