Letters for Dec. 14, 2023

Keep EWU football

A Spokesman-Review article by Shawn Vestal on Dec. 10 describes the nearly yearlong process of analyzing Eastern Washington University’s current budget challenges through a Strategic Resource Allocation evaluation. This evaluation process, that includes significant input from union faculty members, arrives again at the same demand of three years ago which is to eliminate EWU football as it currently exists.

Mr. Vestal’s article also mentions the issue with declining enrollment at EWU, which he states has declined from 10,548 in 2018 to 7,012 in 2023. But EWU is joined by Western Washington University and Central Washington University with similar drops in enrollment and similar drops in revenue which cause similar budget challenges.

Interestingly, Western Washington University eliminated their football program in 2009. Yet today they also struggle with a projected $9 million budget shortfall in 2024 and are looking at strategic cuts and tuition increases to cover the shortfall. Apparently, eliminating a football program does not save a university from budget shortfalls or diminishing enrollments.

Division I athletics bring a lot of notoriety and panache to EWU and the region. Competition for enrolling new students amongst our state universities is very keen. Therefore, any edge EWU can muster to bolster student enrollment should be retained as a key component of a budget strategy at this time.

Conversely, eliminating a popular program that enhances EWU’s image and brings positive attention might not be the best budget strategy. Keep EWU football and budget accordingly to focus on increasing student enrollment.

Paul Schmidt

Cheney

We should penalize expired license plate tabs

The Spokane Valley management is proposing an additional $20 fee to be added to relicensing our cars yearly.

Why not first enforce the relicensing of the vehicles that are currently driving around on our streets with expired license tabs?

I drive all over town and stop behind vehicles with expired tabs all the time, some with tabs up to two years expired. It is obvious the additional $20 fee is not going to do any good if the tabs are purposely not renewed. It makes one wonder that if the tabs have expired, then is the driver’s insurance covering the car anymore? This used to be checked by law enforcement when a driver was pulled over. If the city really needs to generate road revenue, then make sure the cars that are using it have current license tabs. The additional $20 fee means nothing if the tabs are not purchased in the first place.

Tom Morris

Spokane Valley

Superb letter hit the mark

I want to commend the superb letter by Steve McNutt published in The Spokesman-Review on Dec. 3 (“We must call it out and resist”). issue. He succinctly describes the timeline from where our nation’s strengths in supporting all socio-economic classes began eroding to where it is now potentially headed. I have read and reread the article and can find no way to expand on the thoughtful truths and ideals he has presented. As a follow up may I suggest reading “Poverty, by America” (2023) written by Matthew Desmond and “Our Endangered Values” (2005) by Jimmy Carter.

Ruby Carney

Spokane

What if it were your kids under the rubble?

When I read this statement written on the wall of a bombed-out building in Gaza, “What if it were your kids under the rubble?” I knew then that there could be no justice, no peace, no end to war until we realize that the “kids under the rubble” were ours.

Tom Charles

Spokane