LETTER: Going about it the wrong way

Editor,

I am deeply concerned with the way that Utah’s Board of Regents and our university’s president are trying to “improve our education.” What concerns me is the fact that they believe that by increasing our tuition they will improve the quality of students who are going to college and therefore, improve the quality of education.

All that is doing is making it almost impossible for the middle class families to send their kids off to school. And since when did the elite of Utah make better students?

Yeah, I understand that our economic state right now is struggling and times are getting rough for everybody, but there are other means of getting money to the university. I mean, our Coke contract brought in more than $7.2 million, and you can’t tell me that all of that is going to our athletic department.

We don’t need a $42 million library, either. All that needs to be done is an improvement on the two we already have. That right there would probably save more than $25 million.

What we need to concentrate on to improve our education is the quality of the teachers and counselors here and throughout the state.

Not that all the teachers are bad, but there are enough who don’t care about the students or their jobs until it affects the whole system. The counselors who are here and others I know don’t know what they are doing. All they are doing is giving their students the runaround. I have yet to have a school counselor throughout my school years ever show any interest in me or my goals. The only thing that one (me) can get from that is they are just there to get a paycheck and that I am just a thorn in their side.

What we need to do is improve the system, not increase the tuition.

Rob Hjorth