When I read the headline on Friday's State Press, I realized something.
There seems to be an anti-intellectual attitude in society, but never has it been made so obvious. ASU wants to penalize people for being smart.
I'm talking about the proposed $1,000 fee for [Barrett] Honors College students.
ASU wants to "tax the smart."
If ASU wanted better sports equipment, would they be slapping on a $1,000 fee to the tuition of every athlete at ASU? No. There would be such uproar that it would be repealed, and the person who suggested it would be fired.
And this isn't the worst part of it, I found out as I read further. This was "one of the least malevolent ways to make the honors college better."
I wondered what could be worse than charging such a hefty fee for students who want to better themselves. Had ASU thought about sneaking into dorms at night and harvesting the students' organs? I couldn't think of much worse than economically ruining the brightest of the future.
An alternative would be to spread the fee across the entire student body.
--Christopher Heckman
Lecturer, Department of Mathematics and Statistics
Smoker speaks out
Everywhere I turn these days, someone is telling me to quit smoking ... In the past few weeks, I've seen no less than three such demands in The State Press opinion page, and I can't take it anymore.
I'm not obnoxious about my smoking. When I'm not stationary while smoking (which is rare, I might add), I walk along the outside edge of whatever mall I happen to be on and exhale toward the outside to prevent bothering anyone behind me.
I try to be as nice about it as I can. But apparently this isn't good enough for some people. I made a conscious decision to start smoking; and if in the future I decide to quit, it will be because I want to, not because someone else tells me to.
I am an adult, after all. Everyone, please: I already have a monkey on my back; I don't need you there as well. So get off.
--Matt Weir
ASU student
