Category: Campus

Ann Coulter’s USF Visit

I think the university should not spend money to bring Ann Coulter to USF, and I think Ann Coulter should agree with my position. In a June 2005 column titled “Thou Shalt not Commit Religion,” Coulter blasted liberal (and some just-plain-stupid) speech that was paid for with tax dollars. If she is against tax paid leftist speech, she should be opposed to using tax money to pay for her speech also.

That is the core of the issue: the government placed a gun against your head and told you to give it money, and then spent the money on Ann Coulter. True, the money spent is from students’ fees; so technically, if you don’t attend USF, you aren’t paying for Ann Coulter. However, USF is a state-subsidized institution; therefore, tax dollars are being used to pay Ann Coulter.

Think of it this way: the state subsidizes university education, ostensibly because there is a public interest in having educated students. Students make a decision to attend USF based on the total cost to the student of attending, not merely on the cost of tuition. If the university did not pay for speakers, it could provide that same education for a lower total cost. The government could then educate the same number of students for a lower subsidy. Thus, the burden of payment for speakers is on the tax payer. The university even acknowledges this to some extent: the speeches are open to the public in general, not just to USF students.

If the protesters for Ann Coulter’s speech are opposed to all of the speakers paid for by tax dollars, then I applaud them. However, I think instead they are opposed only to spending the money on such a conservative speaker. What they are saying is, “We don’t have a problem stealing your money to make our views heard; we just don’t want to pass the stolen megaphone.” To this I say either, “Woe to ye hypocrites,” or in my best sarcastic and disdainful Jay Leno, “Shut-Up.”

As for Ann Coulter: don’t give the money back Ann, even if it is stolen. They wouldn’t give it back to us, but would just use it to pay some socialist to speak. We already have enough of those on campus.

This article was originally published by the USF Oracle as a letter to the editor, October 19, 2006. Discrepancies between this post and the letter are due to editorial changes I made to this post after the letter was submitted.

Don’t Ban Cars on Campus; Sell Premium Parking

How many times have you been late to class because you couldn’t find a parking space? If you are always on time, how much extra time do you need to add to your commute to insure that you can find a spot in time?

Some students on campus have tight schedules between class and work. Others work very late nights and would pay dearly for twenty more minutes of sleep in the morning. These students (I am one of them) are willing to pay more for parking if it meant not searching for twenty minutes for parking.

However, the editorial board of the Oracle seems to be made of another type of student: the type with all the time in the world who prefers to spend money on beer (or whatever) rather than a convenient, available parking spot. (I am referring specifically to the February 6 editorial, “University has an obligation to make parking affordable.”) There is nothing wrong with those preferences, but those of us with tight schedules should be able to park more easily than those with all the time in the world.

The new parking proposal should make a parking spot a much easier find for time-strapped students. A higher parking fee will mean two things: (1) students who don’t value their time as much (when compared to money) will buy the cheaper, park-n-ride permits, freeing up spaces for those who are willing to pay the higher price because of their time constraints, and (2) more parking garages will be built with the increased revenue.

Until there is parking to spare, the price should be raised. In the short-run, those of us who place a high value on our time will buy the more expensive permits, and have a little more time in our schedules. In the long-run, even those students who prefer beer to time will benefit because parking services will have more money to build parking garages and run buses.

The best solution would be to sell premium parking for specific times near specific buildings (like the gold lots for staff) so that students who are time-crunched could buy expensive passes for their particular class. However, that solution is a little too economically savvy for any bureaucracy.

This article was originally published by the USF Oracle (albeit, in a well-edited and edited well form) as a letter to the editor, on October 6, 2004 titled “Don\’t ban freshman cars, create priority spots.”
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