Letters to the editor

Tuition hike encouragement to transfer

I can’t say that I am really all that… Tuition hike encouragement to transfer

I can’t say that I am really all that surprised that Pitt has decided to raise tuition once again. I am even impressed that they could make it seem like 5 percent is a break. Apparently, in order “to continue at the level of excellence we’ve achieved,” according to Vice Chancellor for Public Affairs Robert Hill, we need this raise in price. Correct me if I’m wrong, but it seems that they should be acquiring more money than last year based purely on the increase of the freshman population. So, we seem to have more students, but yet many facilities have yet to be expanded to accommodate them. Student Government President Kevin Washo Jr. encourages us to register to vote in order to voice our opinion. Although I think that this might help, I feel as if further action is necessary to affect change. There are other reasons besides “prestige” to choose a college. The financial difficulties I have experienced as a result of the previous tuition hikes have not translated to improved curriculum in my situation. It merely serves as encouragement to take my studies elsewhere.

Ashley Hanson

CAS Sophomore

Antiwar protest shouldn’t be dismissed

It was with great chagrin that I read September 25th’s letter to the editor titled “Peace protest a demonstration of ignorance.” Despite this protest being composed of people of starkly different ages, ethnic backgrounds and religious backgrounds – a unity of any and all people against war – our message was summarily dismissed by some people for not agreeing with the government’s “official” opinion. I keep hearing, “What if Iraq attacked us?” and it frustrates me to see that the people asking this question aren’t following their own logic to its conclusion.

During the 1991 Gulf War, it’s estimated over 100,000 Iraqi soldiers died, over 10 percent of Iraq’s standing army, in the space of five weeks. During the same period, the United States lost over 200 soldiers, and friendly fire accounted for almost a third of those deaths. That is just how dangerous America’s weapons were 10 years ago. Would attacking the United States in the future achieve anything other than U.S. retribution, the annihilation of the Iraqi Army and Saddam Hussein’s death or war crimes trial?

Check the CIA’s psychological profile of Saddam, people. He’s a megalomaniac, but he’s not suicidal. That means Saddam is going to be “looking out for No. 1” (himself) and definitely not firing missiles at the United States or connecting himself with anti-US terrorist groups like al Qaeda. I guess if our government makes people afraid enough, evidence no longer becomes necessary and we can be convinced of anything.

Tarik Mahmood

CAS Senior

The Slip review far from truth

Amidst a dwindling music scene where little of anything interesting or original is produced on a regular basis, it was unfortunate to see The Pitt News take a stab at one of the few vibrant genres out there today. In Clinton Doggett’s article on The Slip, he managed to reduce them to a silly cliche of little interest – another one of those Phish wannabe jam bands. The article cut into the scene and their fans, branding them stoners set out to consume piles of the same monotonous trash. He couldn’t be farther from the truth.

What Doggett failed to encounter in his article is the very thing that makes jam bands interesting to begin with. That they take risks, they improvise, and the music itself actually possesses a respectable technical quality. Bands such as the String Cheese Incident, Keller Williams, The Disco Biscuits, and Widespread Panic successfully combine a variety of music elements and produce a quality product which can hit listeners not only on a lyrical level but a musical one as well.

In short, rather than simply knocking a band because they’re of the same genre (which is a pretty broad one in my mind) as another, it would be beneficial to examine the band itself rather than immediately typifying them with the nearest comparable group of musicians. But then again, as a wise man once told me, “Your favorite band sucks!”

Ben O’Dell

CAS Freshman