Letters to the editor
Issue date: 1/12/09 Section: Opinion
Student lacks compassion for other people
In a Friday, Dec. 5, letter to the editor, an international relations major expresses disagreement with Chancellor Gearhart and other university affiliates for raising private funds to help undocumented students stay in school.
Several weeks ago, when I read about the compassionate effort to help students stay in school, I was filled with admiration for the chancellor and others who are making such an effort for University of Arkansas students.
The student's legal status in this country is immaterial. Our fellow human beings are here, want an education and meet the academic qualifications required by the university, so for the good of all of us they should be given the opportunity to obtain a university degree.
It puzzles me that this writer is an international relations major who evidently lacks compassion for other people. To assume that all other people who have come to this country have the same choices as the writer's family, and should have made exactly those choices, shows arrogance and a lack of understanding of the conditions of poverty, totalitarianism, bad luck and different levels of ability that influence the choices that people must make in their lives in order to survive.
That is just what this world needs to make it a worse place: another international relations expert who expects all other people to be just like him.
The good thing about this letter is that it reminds me to make a donation to the organization set up to help undocumented workers stay in school. It is the right thing to do.
Boyd Fisher
Senior Razorback
University officials should consider sidewalk safety
On Jan. 15, 2007, I slipped on a patch of ice and broke my right ankle while walking in the middle of the sidewalk between Ferritor and Science Halls. As a teaching assistant (biological sciences), I was walking to a teaching meeting when the accident occurred.
I was eligible to receive worker's compensation that covered my ambulance ride, two surgeries, casts, physical therapy and wage compensation, the sum of which exceeded $5,000, all paid by Arkansas taxpayers.
Fast-forward nearly two years to Dec. 15, 2008, and the students, faculty and maintenance personnel of the University of Arkansas are all again vulnerable to the same fate I suffered, perhaps without the benefit of worker's compensation.
While walking around campus today, I have been astounded by the amount of ice left on the sidewalk after noon. The sidewalk bordering the north side of Brough Commons was almost completely coated in ice. The sidewalk between Ferritor and Science again had patches of ice, as did the sidewalk around the bus station just south of the Union. It was clear that some areas were salted, but dangerous ice patches clearly remain.
If a student or employee suffers an injury on an ice-covered sidewalk, the university is liable. Employees are covered by worker's compensation, but students are not, in which case the university is vulnerable to lawsuits for not providing a safe working environment.
If the university so values the safety and health of its students and employees, as evidenced by the reasoning behind the tobacco ban, perhaps they would also be willing to spend extra time and money to properly de-ice the surfaces on which said personnel tread in winter conditions.
In doing so, the university would reduce both their potential for lawsuits and the potential burden on Arkansas taxpayers.
James Van Dyke
Research Assistant
Biological Sciences
In a Friday, Dec. 5, letter to the editor, an international relations major expresses disagreement with Chancellor Gearhart and other university affiliates for raising private funds to help undocumented students stay in school.
Several weeks ago, when I read about the compassionate effort to help students stay in school, I was filled with admiration for the chancellor and others who are making such an effort for University of Arkansas students.
The student's legal status in this country is immaterial. Our fellow human beings are here, want an education and meet the academic qualifications required by the university, so for the good of all of us they should be given the opportunity to obtain a university degree.
It puzzles me that this writer is an international relations major who evidently lacks compassion for other people. To assume that all other people who have come to this country have the same choices as the writer's family, and should have made exactly those choices, shows arrogance and a lack of understanding of the conditions of poverty, totalitarianism, bad luck and different levels of ability that influence the choices that people must make in their lives in order to survive.
That is just what this world needs to make it a worse place: another international relations expert who expects all other people to be just like him.
The good thing about this letter is that it reminds me to make a donation to the organization set up to help undocumented workers stay in school. It is the right thing to do.
Boyd Fisher
Senior Razorback
University officials should consider sidewalk safety
On Jan. 15, 2007, I slipped on a patch of ice and broke my right ankle while walking in the middle of the sidewalk between Ferritor and Science Halls. As a teaching assistant (biological sciences), I was walking to a teaching meeting when the accident occurred.
I was eligible to receive worker's compensation that covered my ambulance ride, two surgeries, casts, physical therapy and wage compensation, the sum of which exceeded $5,000, all paid by Arkansas taxpayers.
Fast-forward nearly two years to Dec. 15, 2008, and the students, faculty and maintenance personnel of the University of Arkansas are all again vulnerable to the same fate I suffered, perhaps without the benefit of worker's compensation.
While walking around campus today, I have been astounded by the amount of ice left on the sidewalk after noon. The sidewalk bordering the north side of Brough Commons was almost completely coated in ice. The sidewalk between Ferritor and Science again had patches of ice, as did the sidewalk around the bus station just south of the Union. It was clear that some areas were salted, but dangerous ice patches clearly remain.
If a student or employee suffers an injury on an ice-covered sidewalk, the university is liable. Employees are covered by worker's compensation, but students are not, in which case the university is vulnerable to lawsuits for not providing a safe working environment.
If the university so values the safety and health of its students and employees, as evidenced by the reasoning behind the tobacco ban, perhaps they would also be willing to spend extra time and money to properly de-ice the surfaces on which said personnel tread in winter conditions.
In doing so, the university would reduce both their potential for lawsuits and the potential burden on Arkansas taxpayers.
James Van Dyke
Research Assistant
Biological Sciences
Viewing Comments 1 - 5 of 9
Bob Tiberius
Jeremy
posted 1/13/09 @ 6:02 PM CST
"The student's legal status in this country is immaterial."
Sentiments such as this are our downfall. Law is meaningless if it is inconvenient. That's all it means. (Continued…)
Jeremy
posted 1/14/09 @ 4:56 AM CST
The fact you single out murder and ignore the traffic laws shows your objectivity. The whole point of law is that it is law. We diminish it by actions such as this. (Continued…)
Greg Karber
posted 1/17/09 @ 9:59 AM CST
I totally agree! The whole point of the law is the law! If you disobey the law, then the whole nation will go out the window.
In Alabama, Florida, Indiana, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Utah, and Virginia it is illegal to give or receive oral sex. (Continued…)
Dominic
posted 1/21/09 @ 2:20 AM CST
I am the author of the original letter to the editor and I want to say thank you to all of those who have commented on the situation, both in support and disapproval. (Continued…)
Bman
posted 1/23/09 @ 3:53 PM CST
So if one does not support funding illegal, or undocumented students, or whatever word you want to use, then that person is automatically uncompassionate?!! What a vapid arguement. (Continued…)
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