Dear Editor,

The passage of House Bill 2169 is a crippling blow to the students of Arizona’s public universities. The bill unfairly targets Arizona Students’ Association in particular based on their support for Proposition 204, which extended a 1% sales tax that would have implemented a state based financial aid system. For the past 39 years, Arizona Students’ Association has been advocating on behalf of the students of Arizona’s three public universities and has delivered to the students many times in terms of preventing major increases in tuition, fighting for lower textbook prices and increasing voter awareness among the student body.

From a legal standpoint, the fact that HB 2169 is targeting one group and one group only is not only a bad policy, but also unconstitutional. There were also a number of amendments proposed by House and Senate Democrats that could have been made in order to avert the elimination of ASA. These amendments would have been a much better solution to the “problem” that House Bill 2169 is trying to address, as it was a compromise between both sides.

It is sad that the Arizona legislature has ignored the voices of the students of its public universities. These are the officials that we helped elect into their office, so shouldn’t we expect them to help us with our issues as constituents? It is quite unfortunate that they have failed to do so this time.

Sincerely,
Zachary Marshall, sophomore at the University of Arizona

In response to “Progress report: Daily Wildcat wants your input on this semester’s paper” (by Lynley Price, April 8):

To whom it may concern:

I just wanted to say that I read the Daily Wildcat pretty frequently and both enjoy the articles and have come to trust the sources, etc.

I did have a question about whether the Daily Wildcat has ever had a satire/humor section? I was thinking that a lot of the time, college students get a portion of their news through sources like Colbert Report and Daily Show and there may be an audience for that sort of news, which may spark interest in the rest of the news areas, as well.

Thank you!
Chase Salsbury
College of Engineering

In response to “Pass/Fail” (by Arizona Daily Wildcat Editorial Board, April 9):

Regarding whether the “Pass” for the law school “makes the grade” and is deserved…

The law school may or may not be trying to provide affordable education without cutting quality, but apparently they definitely want to fund tuition cuts by cutting need-based financial aid. Here’s the rest of the story, taken from Executive Summary, AZ Board of Regents Board of Regents Meeting, April 4, 2013, Agenda Item #3:

“UA graduate program fee requests in the College of Law and the Eller College of Management (p.76-87) include a request for an exemption to ABOR Policy 4-104 for the minimum 14 percent set aside for need based financial aid. UA graduate program fee requests in the College of Law and the Eller College of Management (p.76-87) include a request for an exemption to ABOR Policy 4-104 for the minimum 14 percent set aside for need based financial aid.”

What one hand gives, the other takes away.

—6078305