Letters To The Editor

HIGHER EDUCATION

West concocts recipe for disaster

State Sen. Jim West has proposed that Washington State University absorb Eastern Washington University, stating that “Eastern needs something” (Spokesman-Review, Dec. 2). This generous-sounding statement disguises ungenerous motives.

Merging EWU into WSU would reduce access and quality of higher education in the Inland Northwest, endanger some of EWU’s best academic programs and worsen finances at both institutions. Is West really representing us?

For the merger to “retain four-year residential programs” at EWU, WSU must fund them from a budget surplus. But, WSU’s Pullman campus has enrollment and budgetary problems of its own. More likely, a merger would eliminate EWU programs and jobs or move them to Pullman. Tuition at Spokane’s only public university would increase, class sizes would increase, access to professors would decrease and area students would be commuting more.

Solving an enrollment problem by merging two institutions with enrollment problems is senseless.

Financial efficiency would demand targeting EWU programs with relatively low faculty-student ratios. Such programs include music, which supplies the principal performers in the symphony and Spokane String Quartet; creative writing, with internationally renowned writers and a nationally known master of fine arts program; and dental hygiene, ranked in the top 5 percent in the country. The entire Spokane regional community would suffer.

Finally, what about the quality of higher education in Spokane? How often does quality improve when competition is eliminated? Having WSU and EWU downtown is an asset. There may be too many higher education sites in Spokane but there are not too many higher education institutions. Ann C. LeBar Spokane

‘EWU has been assaulted enough’

I recently had the pleasure of attending a concert at the newly restored Showalter Auditorium, presented by the Eastern Washington University music department. As I sat there listening to an excellent performance and admiring the beautiful restoration of the auditorium, I thought about the thousands of students and faculty who have walked the halls and campus in the past century, and my own memories as a student at Eastern Washington State College, as it was then known.

Saturday, I shared in the excitement at Joe Albi Stadium with EWU’s big win. I’m very proud of our football team and my alma mater. It was a good week and I was feeling pretty good.

Then came the Tuesday Spokesman-Review. Sen. Jim West wants to merge my alma mater to help enrollment. Thus, EWU loses its identity.

The next day I read that the University of Washington is interested in my alma mater, followed by the article, “Merger may cost lower-income EWU students.” Does that mean middle-income and upper-income students go somewhere else? I don’t think so.

Every school is concerned about enrollment. EWU has a good location, good academic programs and athletics, all at a good price. Someone should be able to market a good product without a merger.

Change implies the loss of something and an assault always invites a defense. EWU has been assaulted enough. Tom Crooks Oakesdale, Wash.

It’s a power elite conspiracy

Sen. Jim West’s “December surprise” appears, on the surface, to be an ill-thought out solution to EWU’s current self-inflicted mismanagement and student enrollment crises.

Closer examination reveals the real driving force is purely economic and it smacks of vested self-interest. It bears little regard for the future of higher education here.

I applaud the EWU trustees’ stand, backed by all segments of the university community, to not cooperate with West and WSU on this.

Spokane’s elitist ruling class isn’t satisfied with its current rate of accumulation of wealth. Spokane is simply, in their narrow view, not growing fast enough compared to similar-sized cities. They perceive the answer to their dilemma as establishment of a major research university, Spokane State University, downtown in order to catalyze future growth of their assets.

Their previous attempts, while frittering away valuable state resources through formation of SIRTI and the Joint Center for Higher Education have failed. So, now they have recruited to organize their coup Sen. West, the avaricious WSU administration and a few opportunist EWU employees.

West’s proposal completely ignores the needs of a vast majority of the students in Eastern Washington. EWU currently does a terrific job of educating the children of this region’s working people. It provides an affordable education using small classes taught by a highly qualified, and talented faculty backed by a dedicated staff.

But this concept of higher education does not fit in with the plans of Spokane’s self-appointed hierarchy. Jeff A. Corkill, Department of Chemistry, Eastern Washington University, Cheney

Merger will reduce possibilities

I earned my degree from Eastern Washington University. Coming from the small community of Rosalia, it was reassuring for me and my family that I was at a place that provided a good education while not being overwhelming. Now that my daughter is at EWU, I have that same confidence in her EWU experience.

At EWU, class sizes are small. The university pays particular attention to the needs of freshmen. Students are taught primarily by regular faculty members.

Washington State University is a fine school, too. Since it’s one of the state’s two research institutions, it has a different emphasis. Students who attend there do so for different reasons than students have for attending EWU.

It is in the best interest of this state that the two choices remain in Eastern Washington. Do not merge WSU and EWU. If there are problems, find another way. Tom G. Haydon Spokane

Seems it’s manifest destiny time

It was no surprise that the monopolistic SpokesmanReview should favor the hostile takeover of Eastern Washington University proposed by Sen. West and instigated by his cronies at the Joint Center for Higher Education. These empire builders want to further their interests at our expense.

EWU has developed and implemented plans to attract new students and reduce costs to students living on campus. These efforts should be applauded, not viciously attacked by West and The Spokesman-Review.

Why now? EWU is gaining momentum and West and his vanguard of elitist supporters see the opportunity for WSU to gain control of Spokane fading. WSU is spending taxpayer dollars at record levels to build its empire, or as the Review calls them, branch campuses, while enrollment at the Pullman campus is declining.

The decision to attend WSU or EWU should be an individual choice based on personal cost-benefit analysis. If a prospective student sees benefit in the higher costs of WSU they should go there. I am proud I made the decision to attend EWU and will do what I can to fight the injustice proposed by West.

If WSU is allowed to take over EWU, should the University of Washington take over Central and Western Washington universities? Imagine what a “prestigious research institution” could bring to Bellingham and Ellensburg. Maybe the winner of the Apple Cup should control all public education in Washington. A New Educational Order is forming here in our state. Thank you, Emperor West! Bob J. Anderson Spokane

West’s idea ‘real step backwards’

Is Sen. Jim West serious about the WSU takeover of EWU or is he just trying to get some free seats for the Rose Bowl?

I like the idea that my kids will have a choice of going to Eastern or Wazzu. I like the idea that they have a choice of paying the low tuition for a regional university instead of the higher tuition for a research university.

West’s plan to create a monopoly in public higher education on this side of the state is a real step backwards. Students in Eastern Washington now have a choice between two excellent public universities with different qualities. And both are trying hard to recruit students and offer them the highest quality education. I’m surprised that West can’t see the benefits of a little competition. Maria Musun Spokane

Professors not above public policy

In his letter (“West’s proposal a nonstarter,” Dec. 9), Steve Blewett says he is an associate professor and journalism program director at Eastern Washington University.

Blewett calls Sen. Jim west’s merger proposal “ridiculous on its face” and goes on to state that West “has no right to make such a demand” because the “Higher Education Coordinating Board (HEC) was created in part to prevent meddling by legislators.”

Is Blewett a spokesman for EWU, does he establish journalism program policy for EWU or is he simply a public employee afraid for his cushy job? Whatever hat he wears, he and his elitist ilk are a danger to our freedom when he teaches future journalists that educators are exempt from legislators’ (read people’s) oversight! Gerald W. Bell Colville, Wash.

Misdiagnosis, then a snake oil remedy

As a dedicated Eastern Washington University employee, I take umbrage at Sen. Jim West’s caustic remark that EWU “has no discernible image or mission,” as he quaintly put it in his letter to EWU President Marshall Drummond and Washington State University President Sam Smith.

I suspect that the 6,900 students working so hard for degrees at EWU feel likewise. By national standards, WSU has no discernible image, either, often being derisively referred to as Moo-U, if referred to at all.

The incomprehensible thing about West’s “malicious”’ merger proposal (an apt description by ASEWU President LaShund Lambert) is the fact that it embodies the very notions that Republicans generally abhor. Since when is centralization preferable to decentralization? How does consolidation of two universities serving the needs of distinctly different kinds of students contribute to improved services? Is competition between independent entities now considered to be a flawed and erroneous theorem of capitalism that is no longer viewed as healthy? And did these nearly 7,000 EWU students enroll at EWU because they just couldn’t decide between WSU and the University of Washington?

What EWU lacks is not discernible image or mission, but support during a trying and undoubtedly short-lived enrollment decline that spells doom to the bean counters. The EWU community has been working hard to provide a quality, affordable education to those who can’t or, heaven forbid, don’t want to attend the state’s other prestigious universities.

ASEWU’s motto has been “Students first!” This university takes this message to heart. Timothy Beamer Department of Chemistry, Eastern Washington University, Cheney

GAMBLING

As trend grows, we all lose

I was happy to see The Spokesman-Review publish an eye-opening article (Dec. 7) on the study of gambling in the country by Harvard University researchers.

Unfortunately, gambling has gone from being perceived as a social disease to social policy by our lawmakers. Because of government greed we are being tempted and incited to gamble, and waste our hard-earned money. The poor and underprivileged suffer the most.

Gambling among other things devalues the work ethic and causes people to lose more and more “confidence in work as a means of upward mobility,” according to a commentary two years ago by George Will. Will also correctly identifies a main reason Americans (70 percent of whom gamble every year) gamble: to provide them with “an adrenaline rush not attained elsewhere in lives lacking intense experiences.”

Let me add to that: lives lacking spiritual life. Since many Americans are spiritually bankrupt, gambling is a way for many to achieve this “rush” as a temporary fix to their lives of “quiet desperation,” to borrow a phrase from Henry David Thoreau.

Institutionalized gambling is passing on a set of values to our children, the next generation of working Americans, demonstrating we believe the way to success is not through hard work but random chance. Gambling is a social disease that is killing us. Ronald G. Belisle Spokane

OTHER TOPICS

S-R sensationalism adds to grief

I am increasingly dismayed at the sensationalist journalism contained in The Spokesman-Review.

Hard news is difficult to locate in your pages. Why is there so little information about the activities of our elected officials in Washington, D.C., or Olympia? Why isn’t there more extensive coverage of City Council meetings and the activities of the county commissioners?

It’s because our writers are too busy extracting every titillating, sensationalist detail they can from every disaster and heartbreaking event that happens in our community.

The Dean Mellberg incident at Fairchild is dragged out again and again. Your current fascination seems to be compounding the anguish of the Eik family by printing the story that appeared in the Dec. 6 edition of your paper. You should feel shame and remorse for having printed such a story. It only serves to subject people who have already suffered a terrible tragedy to more anguish and fuels the fires of gossip. Why can’t you let people suffer in silence? Mary Anne Sullivan Colbert

Obviously, no comprende

If Henry Warlow (“Know what group’s name means,” Letters, Dec. 8) ever learned any Spanish, he has forgotten that the adjective(s) follow the noun, that those ending in “a” are feminine singular (not masculine plural), and that a word ending in “al” is never plural.

Hermandad Mexicana Nacional translates properly as (The) National Mexican Brotherhood.

This organization is similar to the Urban League, not the Aryan Brotherhood. In working to defend the civil rights of immigrants from Mexico, it necessarily promotes the civil rights of all immigrants.

Warlow’s English is deficient, too. This group is not the “center” of a voter fraud investigation but rather the target. Has Warlow also forgotten that our Bill of Rights guarantees we will be presumed innocent until proven guilty? Edward B. Keeley Spokane

Gist of religions is showing love

Re: Michele Martin’s very well-written Dec. 8 letter, “Yes, religious types are pushy.”

Yes, “religious types” can get pushy at times. But we can look at this from different points of view. Although I’m not of a strict fundamentalist persuasion, I deeply respect those who are as I do people of all spiritual paths. If people get a little zealous at times about sharing their religious convictions, I can choose to be loving in response.

There is a point we all have in common, regardless of our religious profession, and that is simply that we are all Children of God, created in his image. We can look for that element of good in each person we meet and connect with that. This breaks down all feelings of isolation, anger and misunderstanding that so often brings hell instead of heaven into our world. There’s no need for us to be condemn one another. Rather, we should practice what all world religions teach at their core: that we should love and support one another. Thomas E. Durst Spokane

Meteor-borne bacteria a NASA ploy

I told you so. When alleged life was found on the meteor months ago, it made front page headlines. Now that we see it was a boondoggle, it is not stated as such in the news.

Empty theories of life on the other planets are still supported by the words, “Well, there could be bacteria fossils in that meteor, even though we haven’t found them.” How ridiculous. There also could be a hamburger and fries embedded right in the center of the meteor, but that too is also just as impossible as bacteria surviving 5,000-degree re-entry into Earth’s atmosphere and an explosion the size of a small nuclear bomb.

The bacteria boondoggle came right before NASA funding was to be discussed. Now that the Mars probes are being built, NASA doesn’t need bacteria any more.

I’ll stick to my Bible, where it says, “In the beginning God spake and bang there were animals.” That makes more sense than nonexistent bacteria and hamburgers from Mars. Harvey Fritz Moses Lake