TO THE EDITOR:
Browsing through today’s issue of the DTH (Sept. 22) I came across what I thought was quite an astonishing incongruity. While one of the front-page stories informs of possible tuition hikes for 2012-13, and enumerates the actual effects of multi-year cuts (they include fewer seats, fewer course sections, fewer subscriptions to journals and more populated classes), on page 3 we learn that UNC College Republicans will go before Student Congress in the hope of finally getting the funding they need to afford an on-campus talk by Ann Coulter.
According to the group’s leader, this time “plans are in place to make Coulter’s speech a reality.” The Republican pundit, we also learn, charges roughly four times the figure that is usually paid to speakers at UNC: $20,000. Yes, 20. That is considerably more than what most graduate students make in a year, teaching two to three sections.
Maybe I am being naive, but isn’t this absolutely insane? Maybe I’m missing something, but don’t Republicans preach government austerity? Maybe I blatantly ignore the logic behind budgets and funding, but doesn’t this just seem plain incoherent? I’m sure my confusion is due to naivety, distraction and ignorance. There has to be a perfectly rational explanation for why the University would be monstrously overcharged for a service while going through dire financial times. I just wish someone — maybe even the DTH — would free me from my ignorance.
Pablo Maurette
Graduate Student
English and Comparative Literature
