Did anyone else puke up Thanksgiving dinner after reading about UW System President Katherine Lyall’s 43 percent pay increase? President Lyall, whatever did you need an extra $90 thousand for? I realize the cost of living isn’t going down, but my tuition sure as hell isn’t either. Is there any connection between the two? I know a family of 12 who makes less than you and still lives comfortably. I wouldn’t mind 10 percent tuition hikes as much if I knew something constructive was being done with the extra funds. However, lining your wallet with an extra 90 grand from a suffering budget when the economy is in a state of confusion is hardly constructive, unless if by “constructive” you mean “screwing students out of money they don’t have and using it to buy Christmas presents.”
If Lyall is going to vote herself huge salary increases, she at least owes us a believable explanation for them.
Whether we actually get one is a different story. In fact, if she’s reading this letter right now, I’ll bet she’s laughing at me, knowing that it will accomplish virtually nothing. Well, President Lyall, I knew that before I started writing. But if this letter gets one thing done, it will be to give the rest of the student body the following advice: The next time you hear the Board of Regents discussing “what’s best for the students,” don’t bend over.
Aaron Bock
UW senior
Although equality for all people has improved a lot since the days of slavery, there are still many people today who have biased views towards African-Americans. In 1992, police in Oneonta, New York received a phone call from a 77-year-old woman who said a man had attacked her. It was dark and she could not really see the man, but she thought he was black. The police proceeded to stop every African-American man that was driving, walking, or waiting for a bus to check them. They even received a list of black males attending local universities. This is just another example of the unfairness which often occurs when the suspects of crimes are black. I strongly doubt the police would have searched every white person in New York had the lady reported a Caucasian attacker.
American courts have come a long way since the days of slavery and I believe they are as effective and as fair as ever, but until an African-American can be viewed at exactly the same as a white man in court, the United States will not reach true equality. It does not come down to laws or legal equality, but equality in the eyes of all members involved in a court decision. Any decision that gives an African-American even the slightest disadvantage is wrong.
Jeb Shookman
Freshman
After reading the Badger Herald article on Friday, November 16, 2001 regarding the ASM council’s approval of the GSSF budgets, I feel it necessary to write to clear up some misconceptions. First, students should know my quote was taken entirely out of context. I gladly spoke with the Badger Herald reporter, not so I may lament the fact that those desiring to fail the budget were in the minority on council, but to relay to students not all elected council members were out to increase their student segregated fees, to be so-called “rubber stamping renegades” as the Badger Herald would like students to believe. My apology to the students was not for inaction nor inability; I both engaged in debate as well as abstained from passing the budget, in essence symbolically voting against the increase. My apology instead was that segregated fees had indeed gone up, despite the desire by some on council to keep segregated fees stagnant. Finally, the line alleging I claimed I was not “brave enough” to amend the budget is entirely false, and was not included at all in the official quote. I actually stated that I was entirely pragmatic about the entire situation; while I would have preferred to amend the budgets, decreasing them if given my choice, I knew the votes did not exist on council. To amend a GSSF budget takes a two-third vote on council, and the votes simply weren’t there. What I was referring to was my decision not to propose amendments which would ultimately fail in order to keep from alienating a very important, and often underrepresented, segment of campus. That is what I conveyed to the Badger Herald reporter in both my quote and conversation; I regret it was not conveyed to the student body. If any student has any legitimate questions or concerns, regarding my comment or the ASM budgetary process, I invite their emails. However, if students merely have insults to throw, I suggest that they direct them at the correct source.
Elizabeth Stinebaugh
ASM Letters & Sciences Representative