Opinion

Letters to the Editor

Another new school year and another huge tuition increase for the students from Wisconsin. Where’s the outrage? Why do the students let the UW System get away with this? I would expect nothing less than protests in the streets.

In the last two years, instate tuition has increased by a whopping 32 percent! While at the same time, tuition for the people from out of state has only gone up 8 percent. Everybody plays the blame game. It’s always someone else’s fault that your tuition is increasing.

Mr. Doyle and the state legislature have been running around congratulating themselves about balancing our huge state budget without raising taxes. I guess I would consider a 32 percent increase a pretty big tax increase. They tell you that they’re “cutting” spending while our state spending continues to rise at a rate of 8 percent a year.

At the same time, your professors are retiring with six-figure pensions and full health care benefits. They are also still taking sabbaticals to the tune of $100 million per year. We wouldn’t want to reduce any of that spending, you know! Don’t let them fool you. They’ve got it better than you’ll ever see it.

That’s OK. Just let them keep gouging you. At this rate, can you imagine how much it’s going to cost to send your kids to college in 30 years? Have a good time, because many of you will be the last person in family to enjoy the college experience.

Curt Weese

curtweese@comcast.net

As a Wisconsin native and UW alum living in New York, I encourage my socially concerned peers back home to recognize both their luck and their responsibility as swing-state residents. While no amount of campaigning in Manhattan will ever change the electoral vote, a focused effort in your own neighborhood might actually determine whether the nation alters its currently short-sighted and self-destructive course.

Consider the option to volunteer for John Kerry in Wisconsin as a privileged opportunity unavailable to — and envied by — millions of New Yorkers, Los Angelinos, Bostonians, San Franciscans and Chicagoans, many of whom dread, like yourself, the prospect of a Democratic candidate again winning the popular vote without, somehow, winning the presidency.

The urban migration of many young, progressive Wisconsinites has lead to the neutralization of their votes and their political involvement during electoral contests. Helpless myself, I ask you to make timely use of your powerful position. Please act where so many others cannot.

Andrew Fitch

professorfitch@yahoo.com