Financial aid a nightmare, but Kessinger deserves a raise!

After another frustrating day in the financial aid office, I had to ask myself a few questions. Apart from all of the obvious rhetorical ones like, “”Where does the university get off raising tuition another eight or nine percent for out-of-state students this year?”” and the less obvious metaphorical ones, like “”How much money does the university expect to choke out of students before windpipes and bank accounts close up, dry out and ship out?”” I just might end up suffocating trying to think of a reason for that one.

Maybe Taylor Kessinger knows the answer! The tuition hikes are not the only problem around campus involving students’ money. More and more, the financial aid office is becoming like the DMV, and not just an average DMV, either. The kind where no one seems to know the answer to questions (even simple ones), and everyone seems to be put out by each question as if it were a calculus test. At least I can eventually renew my license at the DMV; walking out of the financial aid office with a positive result is about as likely as ordering a Big Mac at the Burger King in the union.

It’s too bad that the office that should help students with aid is not as well-run as the office that collects their money. Is the Bursar’s Office run by a computer with a gigantic platinum motherboard, or did the Bursar’s Office get all of the talent in our university’s administration?

On a more positive and completely unrelated note, I would be willing to pay more tuition to double or even triple Taylor Kessinger’s salary, quadruple his sick days and give him a renewable stipend to travel to another university to teach. I just don’t think it’s fair to constrain his talent and insight to our school. I think we’ve already learned all we can about working out, politics, religion and fashion to last us a lifetime in college. Besides, imagine all the interest on student loans for a lifetime in college. I’m going to need a bigger calculator.

-Sam Cutter
philosophy sophomore

Society accepts ‘average’ pay for teachers

Thank you for writing the article on teacher’s pay (“”Teachers: Don’t they deserve better?”” Aug. 30).

But, I have to tell you the most ridiculous thing ever written about teachers’ pay was made by Bob Zach, a newspaper reporter from Globe. He did not support a pay raise for teachers because “”that is more than I make.””

I have since learned that there is truth in his statement. People are not concerned what teachers are paid as long as it is not more than they are paid! If you make less than a teacher, then the teacher is overpaid. If you make more than a teacher, then “”they could get a job that paid like mine if they wanted.”” When choosing a doctor, lawyer, engineer, nurse, etc., we want the most money can buy. Ours is the only profession where society is content to accept average.

-Duane Howard
Superintendent
Morenci School District

Where have all of the good comics gone?

Last year the comics were an integral part of the Wildcat. The penguins were hilarious, and they told stories about what was happening on campus. The political cartoons were funny, but not to the point where they were considered offensive. The comics this year have gone downhill, with the exception of one returning comic, “”The Right Place at the Wrong Time””.

It’s not the comic about the “”Merbot”” that grinds our gears, it’s the comic titled “”No Relation.”” The material that has been displayed in this comic over the past week has been outright offensive, for example, the continuous insults against homosexuals, and other religious factions on campus. The hidden racial slurs that have been included in this comic are also a downright insult to every person on this campus. We don’t understand how a comic of such offense continues to be approved for publishing every day in the Wildcat.

Please either change the comics, or come up with some less offensive (but funny) material.

-Justin Capasso
biology sophomore
-Tina Esposito
biology junior

Sex offender article ‘ugly’

Having worked at the Center Against Sexual Assault I feel strongly about victim’s rights, but in the case of the Aug. 30 article “”3 students on sex offender register,”” I thought naming names was ugly. That is the first word that came to my mind. It was an ugly thing to do, because that could be devastating to these students’ futures to all of a sudden have their colleagues know about past offenses. If they are already in full compliance with Arizona law, that is enough. If the public wants more information or feels that compliance is not enough, the correct outlet is the state legislature, not the Daily Wildcat.

-Lisa McPhee
UA alumna