Editor:
Re: “”Student services to suffer from budget cuts”” (Feb. 3). It saddens me to hear the details of the proposed budget cuts. I realize that California is in major debt, according to the department of finance, and in that lies a governmental obligation to propose statewide budget cuts. But to hit the UC system with the burden of a $25.4 million budget cut would devastate the already lacking areas of recreation and student interest in extracurricular activities.
Since money is always on UC students’ minds, especially at UCSD, the governor’s proposed budget cuts will cause an unprecedented panic for a selective group of the student body, as well as some staff members. With cuts in the UCSD athletic department reaching all-time highs, countless student athletes may be forced to immediately raise needed funds or run the risk of losing their individual sport for good.
As an ex-athlete, I urge the budget committee to reconsider its priorities in the face of the California budget deficit. There needs to be more student interest and opinion on the decisions that directly effect the students. From personal experience, student athletes put in so much time and effort into their academic and athletic careers that it would be a shame to rob them of much-needed funds. These funds would allow our athletic teams to continue to represent UCSD with excellence.
— Dan Krefft
UCSD student
Guardian lacking in editorial judgment
Editor:
Featured opinion articles by Dustin Frelich have showcased a failure by the Guardian in its responsibility to provide well-written, intelligent exploration of noteworthy controversy.
What irks me most when reading Mr. Frelich’s regular contributions to the opinon page of the Guardian is not the writing itself. That he makes me pity conservatives for having him among their constituency, that he elicits cringe after sighing cringe for his badly substantiated attacks against anything stereotypically “”liberal,”” for his dismemberment of the endeavor of persuasive writing, and that reading his pieces gives me a crick in the neck — bow head to read, snap head back up in irritation, take deep breath and repeat in seemingly endless sequence — these things are not what concerns me most.
What really makes me aghast is that a power-that-is at Guardian headquarters, someone who presumably has the authority to say “”yea”” or “”nay”” to any scrap of paper that finds its way to his or her desk, actually looked at every one of Mr. Frelich’s articles that made it to press, actually read them all over, and after reading each, actually said to him- or herself, “”This article is publishable. This is fit to print.””
For The UCSD Guardian, a publication that boasts a considerable readership and should serve somehow both to educate and represent a large and respected university and its hopefully gifted students, this is unacceptable.
I would like to see greater exercise of editorial powers. I believe that the Guardian loses credibility as a journalistic enterprise by allowing the publication of inadequeately written, poorly argued pieces. (This is especially true when such a piece headlines the opinion page.)
A sound editorial section draws strength not from radical or outrageous opinions on the part of its writers, but how clearly and compellingly they are able to defend their positions, however far-fetched. Mr. Frelich has failed dismally on this account; he is often unable even to anchor himself to a single topic or unifying theme within his largely unoriginal, stereotypical party-line rants. The Guardian should re-evaluate its willingness to print such material, from Frelich or otherwise.
— Kate Lierson
Marshall College junior
