Preventing rich from getting rich will remove incentive to succeed

In response to Friday’s column “”Rich no more ‘deserving’ of wealth than the rest of us,”” I am going to present Taylor Kessinger along with the UA population of students with a simple scenario they can understand, rather than countering every point Kessinger made about the rich not being deserving of what they earn.

If Kessinger truly believes that the rich are no more deserving of the wealth they earn than the rest of us, I think he should support the statement that students with 4.0 GPAs are no more deserving than those with a lower GPAs. So why not spread the GPAs around? Those in the 3.5-4.0 range will be deducted one point, students in the 3.0-3.4 range will be deducted half a point, and those below a 3.0 will not be deducted points at all and will actually be given half a point. This way everyone can be equal and feel good about themselves; after all, those who worked hard to get those 4.0s aren’t really deserving of them right? I’m sure this will really motivate all students to do well in school. It’s only fair! Right?

This is the same situation with the “”rich.”” If you punish people for their success, whether it is how much money they make or what GPA they earn, it does not stimulate production. Why would someone study hard to get an “”A”” in all their classes when they will end up with a lower grade regardless of how much work they put in?

The students who are fine with getting “”C””s will not work any harder to attain “”A””s because they are automatically given half a point from the hard work of 3.5-4.0 students. Eventually, all students will end up at the same C level, no one will work hard, and no one will succeed in getting a decent GPA.

Katie Pavlich, journalism junior

University should prepare for potential health hazard posed by finals week

With finals looming over all of our heads and the media crawling with reports of the swine flu popping up everywhere, I think the campus should take proactive steps to keep healthy over the course of finals week. Four large threats to immune system health include drugs, stress, nutrition and pollution. Well, we live in Arizona, so air quality is always a concern, but thankfully our air index is pretty good lately. However, I think it is safe to say that the remaining three threats sum up finals week for a lot of students.

Finals week provides a lot of pressure for students to go the extra mile and pull all-nighters, and cram sessions in order to jam that last bit of knowledge that so much of our grades balance on. Recent articles in the Daily Wildcat as well as national press have shown us that academic performance enhancing drugs are sometimes used too. (Some could argue that they are used even more widely during finals time.) All of this risky behavior is likely to tire you, stress you to the max and make you feel down and out, not to mention the post finals celebration? Since it is not likely that finals will be canceled, though it would be nice since I like the majority of my grades as they are, we all should be extra conscious of our studying habits so we can keep our immune systems strong in light of this potential pandemic.

I’m not trying to be a fearmonger, but this situation is serious enough for the CDC and the WHO to take action, so we should take it seriously. Though no cases are reported in Arizona yet there are cases reported in two states very close to us. Let’s try to prevent Arizona from joining the fold. See you all at the library. Unless of course the university is willing to give us the option of letting our grades ride as they are. (read: not likely)

Mike Geary, pre-education senior