Dear Editor,

It takes a lot to rile me up lately. After dealing with death and lawyers, most stuff just rolls off my back. I might get a little irritated, but the feeling usually fades rather quickly. However, today something happened that has annoyed me beyond irritation. I ate at the Wood Center. I know, I know. It was a foolish thing to do, but I spent 10 and a half hours studying yesterday, (until 2:10 a.m.) and I wanted a hot meal that I did not have to cook.

I went over to the Wood Center food court at around 8:00 and paid $6.99 for an all-you-can eat breakfast buffet. It is a standing joke that the food cools off before you can eat it, but this stuff was really luke-warm. The taste was no surprise, if you can call the bland cardboard a taste. I wanted something really hot so I ordered a breakfast sandwich. I knew that it wasn’t five-star, I just wanted something hot. I took the “hot” sandwich back to the table and sat down to eat it.

As I wrapped my fingers around the sandwich I felt the warmth permeate into my soul. " Ahhhh!" I thought. "Really warm food." In anticipation, I closed my lips around the sandwich and took a bite. A burning sensation filled my mouth and permeated the taste buds. I can honestly tell you this burning was not from a spice or heat. It was from the rancid meat. I tried different parts of the sandwich, thinking that it might be the oil from the grill. But the flavor or attack on my mouth came from the meat.

You might think this is a rare circumstance, but sadly it is an all-too-common occurrence at both the Wood Center and the Commons. Over the last four years I have heard numerous stories of food poisoning and other unseemly ailments from a wide assortment of students. The things that are done to stay away from campus food are creative to say the least. I have learned my lesson well. If I am hungry, eat at the bookstore. The food is not fancy, but it is cheap and tasty. "Mmmmm. Power bars."

-Leslie Drumhiller

Dear Editor,

The Concert Board of our student association collects from us on an annual basis over $60,000 a year in order to enrich our lives with activities and concert events. When it was created a little over 5 years ago we all knew that the organization needed some maturing and so given time it would develop into an entertainment producing machine, we hoped. However it seems like the whole thing was high jacked rather hard by the student activities department of our administration.

Here are a few little bits of information that concerned me through my tenure as an association member the past few years. The first is the rather unorganized nature of these meetings dominated by staff members with specialized knowledge on the subject of events rather than any attempt to bring student opinion or surveys into decision-making. From what I understand and according to the rules of Concert Board, any ties that develop in decision making are arbitrated with rock, paper, scissors I am pretty upset that such a large sum of money can be decided by such a method.

The second of which is how over $10,000 of our Concert Board funds were used to transport several students to an event to learn about planning concerts. Could we have not brought someone up for this? Is this information not available online or was this just a convenient way to use our money for a vacation to go hang out with bands? Finally the difficulty by not only the students but the actual members of Concert Board to figure out where meetings are, where the minutes of these meetings are, and how much money is spent all lead me to one very specific conclusion.

This Concert Board we created needs some major financial over site and I believe our student senate is the way to do that to help prevent in the future unnecessary administrative influence and financial accountability to the objectives of our Concert Board. If you are concerned where your money is going just find the members of the Concert Board and ask or perhaps student activities knows the point is we need some changes if we are going to get some quality entertainment that reflects what our student body is looking for.

-Joe Blanchard

Dear Editor,

In recent weeks, discussion has surfaced on campus over whether student wages for on-campus jobs need hiked. The general feeling is that students are getting the shaft when university officials refuse to increase student pay rates while increasing tuition five to10 percent annually. But increasing student wages isn’t as easy as one would think. Money paid out to students on campus comes from a variety of sources, primarily the federal and state government. This money is filtered through the university budgetary system and then distributed to individual departments to meet their student employment needs.

This is an extreme oversimplification, but that doesn’t matter too much. The importance is that the University of Alaska depends partly on state government appropriations to pay for student positions. Here, we run into a problem: state support for the University of Alaska in 2007 fell $97.2 million short of the nation-wide average. This dilemma is exacerbated by rising costs in health care, retirement and utilities which effectively robbed UA of $44.7 million this year. Essentially, this hampers the development of new projects and programs in the university, including probably student wage hikes. Students shouldn’t expect the university to voluntarily raise student wages. But this doesn’t mean that a future wage hike isn’t out of the question. The fact remains that the university hasn’t reconsidered student pay rates since 2003. Why? Well, there has been no real pressure on the university to increase wages in the past because the lowest wage on campus ($7.50/hour) is a safe 45¢ above the state’s minimum wage.

This will probably change when the federal minimum wage, currently $5.85/hour, increases to $6.55/hour in 2008 and to $7.25/hour in 2009. With Alaska’s minimum wage normally around $1 higher than the federally-mandated wage, it seems reasonable to expect an increase in the state’s minimum wage. So demands for higher student wages will probably be met in the future, although not because of student outcries.

Now, I could tell you that we as students should seek better-paying jobs in the private sector, but we must all recognize that there is a real value in working on campus. Anybody living in university housing without a car knows that not having to drive to an off-campus job saves time and money.

And if you are one of the lucky student employees who get away with doing homework while working, you are actually benefiting yourself in more ways than you know. Working for $7.50/hour at a desk may not pay for the tuition increases nor do much for your résumé, but that’s the opportunity cost that you pay for being able to study while earning money. Sure you don’t get paid the $8.50 or $9.50/hour that other students receive, but you definitely gain leisure time from multitasking at work. And in a world where time is money, you are much more wealthy than you thought.

-Adrian Raymond
Member of S.W.E.E.T
(Students Who Enjoy Economic Thinking)

Challenge to UAF Student Leaders

The Leadership Conference Planning Team would like to issue a challenge to all UAF student leaders. Come to the 2007 UAF Leadership Conference on October 19 and 20 and fine tune your leadership skills, while also paving the way for new leaders to discover their own abilities and continue the Nanook Leadership Legacy. With great workshops, door prizes (including an Alaska Airlines ticket), gift bags, networking opportunities, food, and so much more, there are a million good reasons to join the fun. Bring a friend, first year student, or other emerging leader, and there is sure to be a little something extra for you (think amazing door prizes). Stop by the Leadership Program office in Wood Center, call 474-1170, or go to www.uaf.edu/leadership for a registration form and more information. Step up to the Leadership Challenge…we know you can do it!

Sincerely,
The UAF Leadership Conference Planning Team