Out-of-state opinion ‘misguided’

This is in response to Mike Hathaway’s column (“”Arizona’s other immigration crisis”” yesterday) and his apparent problem with out-of-staters. I understand that these were strictly his opinions, but they came across as very misguided. I found his article to be longwinded and wholly based on over-generalizations and assumptions. I moved here from New Jersey a little over two years ago and know a lot of Tucson natives who wouldn’t dare drink tap water and have never hiked a day in their lives. He also mentioned that people need to “”toughen”” up, my question is has he been to New Jersey? No, I don’t have a hint of an accent and I happen to drive a Honda Civic. All he’s really done in his article is perpetuate misconceptions. He asks out-of-staters to celebrate this city’s diversity by assimilating to its culture. The beauty of living in the U.S. is that everyone can choose to live however they please. Like it or not, out-of-staters have fed this city’s economy for years and I don’t see anyone complaining about that.

Esther Pullido
regional development junior

Success ‘highly unlikely and
improbable’ without the right degree

This was written to reveal the flaws in Laura Donovan’s column (“”Mind your own major”” Tuesday) involving studying a well-respected degree versus something you enjoy. It is true that majoring in something you enjoy does not exclude individuals from exceptional professions, however, it is highly unlikely and improbable to achieve a high paying profession with a degree such as creative writing or religious studies. According to the National Association of Colleges and Employers in 2005, the highest paying undergraduate degrees are in the areas of engineering around $53,000, followed by business degrees which earn around $43,000.

The liberal arts majors are averaging $30,000.

Keep in mind these are starting salaries and the average greatly increases with experience.

The article claims that any student can apply to medical school or a graduate business school while respected majors, however, do not guarantee a position. The article fails to explain that the necessary prerequisites such as organic chemistry and physics are still required to apply to medical school. Those who choose to study communications or philosophy may not have the will or aptitude to receive exceeding grades in these courses.

Additionally, it also fails to analyze the fact that although these respected degrees do not guarantee a position, it dramatically increases the probability that a student receives a quality job offer following graduation. According to CNNMoney.com, high demands exist in the areas of marketing, law, engineering and accounting (accounting especially after Enron and the passage of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002).

Next, the article continues to make a very ambiguous claim that students with less stressful majors use their free time to find internships and leadership experiences. This may be true, but neglects to indicate that internships in the areas of business, science and engineering are more lucrative and pay substantially higher than those other internships. From personal knowledge, engineering and business internships shell out salaries ranging from $15 to $30 per hour and provide critical work experience in their field of study. The columnist assumes that business and science students neglect work experience and leadership skills, when these students are more likely to seek these opportunities.

Both the “”useless”” degrees and the respected degrees have dedicated students and lazy ones.

In sum, the columnist is correct by claiming it is not impossible, but she portrays the rare exception as a generalization. Those who want to gamble with their future or have rich and powerful parents can study what they enjoy, but those who prefer to have a specialized advantage will continue to study well-respected fields.

Michael Hwang
chemical engineering sophomore

Students have ‘terrible reputation’ with tipping

I am a full time college student, and I work as a waitress/server part time. I’ve been a server for four years in Arizona so I can relate to much of what was highlighted in Tuesday’s news article, “”Local servers vent about thrift of UA students: ‘walking out,’ tipping less than 20 percent.”” Serving is by no means an easy job. To put it bluntly, young people have a terrible reputation in some servers’ minds; they can be demanding, condescending and awful tippers. This isn’t the rule but it happens so often that whenever we get young people at a table, we may cringe (internally). A good server won’t let this affect her service, but it is frustrating to be tipped poorly after being treated badly.

There were two flaws in the article; first, the minimum wage in Arizona is $6.90 which means servers get $3.90 an hour. In reality, after taxes it is MUCH less – it can even end up that you have a negative pay check and owe the restaurant money for taxes!

Also, when a table “”walks out”” on a bill it is illegal to have the server pay the bill unless management can prove that the server had prior knowledge of the table’s plan. Thanks for shedding light on this hard job.

Jameela Norton
family studies and human
development junior