College students are all ‘indebted’ to someone

The arrogance in Christopher Smith’s letter on Tuesday angered me in a way that comments do. Smith stated that he has “no debt to educators or anyone else.” REALLY? I won’t even engage in a ridiculous debate about what a student owes their professor. However, if you are receiving Federal Student Financial Aid, even loans, you owe the taxpayers of the United States. If you are receiving any scholarship funds, you owe those donors. If your parents are helping you in any way, you owe them. If you are receiving a HOPE Scholarship, you defiantly owe the taxpayers of Georgia.

If by some chance, Christopher Smith, you are a student at UGA, paying for it yourself, with no loans, scholarships, or help from parents, you are still indebted. According to the 2009 State of UGA Address, 2.35% of the State of Georgia’s budget goes to UGA, which makes up 38% of the university’s operating budget (which means a much lower tuition rate for every student). If you are a student at UGA, you owe the taxpayers of Georgia.

What do you owe though? You owe taking your education seriously. You owe diligent work in your classes. You owe completing your degree in a reasonable amount of time. You owe becoming a productive citizen. Make no mistake, as a student of a public institution, you ARE indebted.

Larry R. Correll-Hughes
Grad. Student, Waco, Texas
College student affairs administration

Student displays arrogance

In response to Christopher Smith, I have to say that Mr. Smith’s contemptible attitude toward his teachers and classmates exemplifies the unmerited sense of entitlement that is characteristic of too many Generation Y students.

Mr. Smith arrogantly suggests that, since he pays his professors, it is left to his discretion whether he is attentive or disruptive, and that since hot dog vendors are more likely to possess valuable life experience, he would be more interested in learning from them.

What life accomplishments, I wonder, grant Mr. Smith the right to disregard a teacher’s academic accomplishments and to be so dismissive of his fellow students’ right to a respectful learning environment? Clearly, those accomplishments include neither his ability to construct grammatical sentences nor his capacity to follow a line of reasoning consistently.

I guess he was too busy blowing off his English teachers to master those skills.

Rich Suplita
Faculty, Athens
Psychology