Show us the money

We hope the University considers the students in its final budget decisions

Although you likely heard the University has been in the process of making significant budget cuts, did you know $26.6 million dollars is going straight to funding a special collections library?

The University administration has little control over the allocation of money contributed by outside sources, such as sponsors and private contributors, as reported on the front page of today’s Red & Black. These so-called “restricted funds” include the nearly $27 million going to the library, but the University does decide how to spend the remainder of its budget.

The Red & Black editorial board would like to suggest the following for how the administration and college deans choose to use the rest of their dough amidst budget reductions:

- Build new dorms, or at least renovate. As the incoming freshman classes grow larger every year and are required to live in residence halls, the facilities really could use an upgrade.

- Give funding to Parking Services to help cover at least a little of the outrageous prices students pay for a space on (or just near) campus. Paying for parking tickets for illegally parking downtown shouldn’t be cheaper than having a legitimate spot.

- Hire more full-time faculty members. Even majors and minors in high demand have been losing teachers – the Spanish minor was almost cut last spring. Instead of cutting down on staff, thus limiting the desired education of the students, keep priorities straight by shelling out at least for professors’ salaries.

- Kelly Shaul for the editorial board

Varying viewpoints

Educators can promote discussion, but shouldn’t force judgments on students

The strained fight for the presidential bid has seeped into most University’s students’ daily lives. A perpetual anticipatory buzz exists in the news and elsewhere, whether students like it or could not care less.

But when does headline dominance justify a place in University classrooms? Should professors “sit on the sidelines” when it’s time for lecture, or express their political views as they please?

According to an Monday story in the Athens-Banner Herald, 23.3 percent of University students said they agreed or strongly agreed with a statement that they “personally had a class where they felt they had to agree with the professor’s views to get a good grade.”

More than one-fifth of students claiming their opinions were unacceptable in the classroom is, well, unacceptable.

Professors have the right to disseminate their views thanks to the First Amendment, and such expression is at times inevitable with course topics that often clash with politicians. Political discussions, conducted appropriately, can combat political apathy, encourage awareness of current events and convince college students to get out and vote.

However, professors should not suppress students’ views, and their own opinions certainly should not affect students’ grades in any way. If politics are involved in class discussions, let all sides participate without fear of grade retribution. Maybe unity won’t be reached in such a way, but at least intellectual freedom will.

- Jennifer Paxton for the editorial board