Spring Break
Letters to the Editor
Issue date: 5/16/08 Section: Forum
Response to Roman Nose and Wozich
Opposing views
Is something wrong with President Bush attending his daughter's wedding? Why? Do presidents need to stop being fathers? I can appreciate the feelings of mothers of deployed military personnel. Those in the military could have gotten out if they wanted to. We don't need a draft. There will always be enough men and women that feel an obligation to defend freedom. I joined because I have always felt like I owe my country a debt of gratitude. I don't care if Saddam had weapons of mass destruction. That is immaterial at this point. I have talked to soldiers and marines who have all recounted personal experiences of the Iraqi people thanking them for giving them freedom and liberty. The biased media only reports negative stories. I agree that we owe a considerable debt to our veterans. One of the things that we owe them is to stay and finish what we started. Timetables are counterproductive. We do not need another Vietnam. I think a more fitting title for your opinion piece would have been "Obama for President." It would cover the bulk of what you wrote. I have a problem with Obama's politics and proposed policies. He wants to socialize medicine, retreat from terrorists, abandon our allies and steal the profits of the gas companies to encourage alternate energy alternatives. Health care costs are out of control. I think that a deal should be brokered that would be mutually beneficial. In exchange for eliminating punitive damages in lawsuits, health care costs and malpractice insurance rates should be lowered. In cases of gross negligence, take away their license to practice medicine in all states. Dwight Wozich's column was right on. I was beginning to think that all of my peers were blinded by Obama.
Deryk Watson
senior, mechanical engineering,
Navy recruit
Treatment of graduate students
UO might appreciate them more
I am outraged by the OSU administration proposals in its bargaining with the OSU graduate student union, Coalition of Graduate Employees. The union is bargaining to gain increases in wages and benefits for graduate students who perform many essential tasks for OSU, most notably serving as teaching assistants and conducting much of the research that keeps OSU a competitive university. The administration's proposal effectively amounts to a pay cut since they propose to drop partial fee coverage, not increase wages and not increase their percentage of health care coverage. In sharp contrast, the University of Oregon's graduate student union's recently negotiated pay package includes 8 percent wage increase over the next two years, 100 percent individual health coverage with partial coverage for dependents (OSU: 75 percent/0 percent individual/dependent) and $56/term fee reduction.
Why are UO graduate students receiving better wages and benefits than their OSU counterparts? Perhaps their administration appreciates their graduate students more than does the OSU administration. Or perhaps their administration is better at getting funds with which to support their graduate students. If this is the case, why is OSU doing so poorly? OSU faculty and staff are set to get pay raises this year. Why not the graduate students as well?
W. Terry Frueh
Ph.D. student, water
resources engineering
Opposing views
Is something wrong with President Bush attending his daughter's wedding? Why? Do presidents need to stop being fathers? I can appreciate the feelings of mothers of deployed military personnel. Those in the military could have gotten out if they wanted to. We don't need a draft. There will always be enough men and women that feel an obligation to defend freedom. I joined because I have always felt like I owe my country a debt of gratitude. I don't care if Saddam had weapons of mass destruction. That is immaterial at this point. I have talked to soldiers and marines who have all recounted personal experiences of the Iraqi people thanking them for giving them freedom and liberty. The biased media only reports negative stories. I agree that we owe a considerable debt to our veterans. One of the things that we owe them is to stay and finish what we started. Timetables are counterproductive. We do not need another Vietnam. I think a more fitting title for your opinion piece would have been "Obama for President." It would cover the bulk of what you wrote. I have a problem with Obama's politics and proposed policies. He wants to socialize medicine, retreat from terrorists, abandon our allies and steal the profits of the gas companies to encourage alternate energy alternatives. Health care costs are out of control. I think that a deal should be brokered that would be mutually beneficial. In exchange for eliminating punitive damages in lawsuits, health care costs and malpractice insurance rates should be lowered. In cases of gross negligence, take away their license to practice medicine in all states. Dwight Wozich's column was right on. I was beginning to think that all of my peers were blinded by Obama.
Deryk Watson
senior, mechanical engineering,
Navy recruit
Treatment of graduate students
UO might appreciate them more
I am outraged by the OSU administration proposals in its bargaining with the OSU graduate student union, Coalition of Graduate Employees. The union is bargaining to gain increases in wages and benefits for graduate students who perform many essential tasks for OSU, most notably serving as teaching assistants and conducting much of the research that keeps OSU a competitive university. The administration's proposal effectively amounts to a pay cut since they propose to drop partial fee coverage, not increase wages and not increase their percentage of health care coverage. In sharp contrast, the University of Oregon's graduate student union's recently negotiated pay package includes 8 percent wage increase over the next two years, 100 percent individual health coverage with partial coverage for dependents (OSU: 75 percent/0 percent individual/dependent) and $56/term fee reduction.
Why are UO graduate students receiving better wages and benefits than their OSU counterparts? Perhaps their administration appreciates their graduate students more than does the OSU administration. Or perhaps their administration is better at getting funds with which to support their graduate students. If this is the case, why is OSU doing so poorly? OSU faculty and staff are set to get pay raises this year. Why not the graduate students as well?
W. Terry Frueh
Ph.D. student, water
resources engineering
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