Tuition hike dishonors contract with students

I am a student at Long Beach State University, California. Like many of you, who spend time on this campus, I wonder when I will finally graduate. Yet no matter how long I have remained on the campus, I have enjoyed the experience.
 
My positive experience on campus was tainted Jan. 8, when the office of the Bursar sent me a letter stating the “current budget crisis,” and that “full time undergraduate fees have been increased by $72 per semester and full time graduate fees increased by $114 per semester.” A week later a bill was sent to me for an increase in the tuition that I fully paid in November. When I paid the bill in November, if I have learned my lessons well at the university, a contract between myself and the state of California was entered into that for the fee rendered the term’s education would be given.
 
Does this story seem possible?
 
I went shopping in November and bought a pair of shoes at the store. I paid the price. The cashier shook my hand and congratulated me on my new shoes. I thanked her and wore them. Three months later, the shoe store balanced its accounts, and realized the store was losing money. The store managers and supervisors held a meeting and decided to increase the shoe price and worse bill all their previous customers who had purchased shoes an additional charge even though the shoes were already purchased.
 
Now, should I pay? Would you pay?
 
Yes, you would, and I probably will too for we do not want our “access to the university … to be blocked.” But we are sent to school to reason, to study logic and to practice the integrity of doing business. Shall we humbly pay without questioning? That, my friends, would be an affront to our professors who come to class day after day to deliver the meaning of truth, reason and integrity.
 
Personally, my pride for the institution is shaken. This institution is able to produce thousands of energetic, ready to conquer-the-world students like you and I who will graduate, wearing the “integrity” of the school. Yet this education system cannot honor the contract it made to the students during a difficult time. No longer is a promise made a debt unpaid. How can you and I bring our degrees into the world striving for success honor, and integrity, when the institution granting them does not fully understand its own action?

— My-Ngoc Nguyen
 

America, Europe should not unite

The recent column, “America, Europe should unite” encourages Europe to unite with the United States on the administration’s desire to engage in a pre-emptive military action with Iraq. But, why should Europe allow itself to run, pell-mell, into an ill-advised and immoral war? In order to justify the United Nation’s sanction for war, Colin Powell needed to demonstrate that Iraq is a genuine and immediate threat to U.S. security and world peace, and that the only method left to deal with Iraq would be through war. At his address before the U.N., Powell promised to reveal definitive proof that Saddam Hussein is hiding weapons of mass destruction; however, his sleight-of-hand presentation, chockfull of innuendoes, exaggerations, speculation, and unproven “facts,” failed to make a persuasive case.
 
Going to war would not increase peace and security for either the U.S. or Europe. Instead, it would most likely increase the growing anti-American sentiment in the Islamic world, and promote rather than demote terrorism. In addition, unintended consequences, fueled by the growing anger and resentment that such an act would undoubtedly engender, might very well destabilize countries in the region.
 
While the writer cites the commonly held ideology of America and Europe; that is: “freedom, democracy, tolerance [and] human rights,” there is no mention of that other, less noble, historical bond that we share—imperialism. This Administration’s imperial designs in the [Persian] Gulf, along with his vision of America as “Empire” is not something that bodes well for future values of freedom, democracy, tolerance, and human rights.  While Iraq poses no imminent threat to the United States or to Europe, our President’s arrogance to “go it alone” does not bode well for our country, Europe, or the citizens of this small planet.

— Linda Olson

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