North Texas Daily (Denton, Tex.), Vol. 98, No. 48, Ed. 1 Wednesday, November 16, 2011 Page: 7 of 8
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Wednesday, November 16,2011
iews
Page 7
Ian Jacoby, Views Editor
ntviewseditor@gmail.com
Ca/HDOtS
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Which candidate do
you believe will win
the Republican
nomination?
I haven't paid much attention
to the debates or anything, but
definitely not Rick Perry... So I
guess Ron Paul because he's the
closest to libertarian, and I'm a
libertarian.
DULoa- La^ermaxu.
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Yeah, I doht like any of them;
honestly they're all jackasses, in
not a Republican and I don't like
any of them*
Aubretj QicLdlLe,
A<UkropoLo^ij sopkxxwore
I 'm extremely ignorant of
even the running. I'm not
even familiar with the people
running. I'm probably just going
to wait until they narrow it
down on each side and make a
decision then,'
Gva.se CaLLeap.A_
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LET US KNOW!
Visit NTDaily.com every Friday to
vote in our weekly poll. We'll post
the updated results here daily.
How do you get to class?
^ 1 walk/bike/skate, {39%, 33 votes)
I ride the bus. (19%, 16 votes)
^ I don't go to class. {15%,. i3Votas)
^1 use my permit to park on campus, {m, 12 votes)
^ I park on residential streets near campus. (11%, 9
Votes)
I use one of the parking garages. {2%, 2 Vo(w)
^ ! park at meters. [a%. 0 vbiss)
Total Voters: 85
Vote
^ Polls Archive
The Editorial Board
and submission policies:
Josh Pherigo, Amber Arnold, Ian
Jacoby, Sean Gorman, Jesse Sid-
lauskas, Sydnie Summers, Stacy
Powers,Valerie Gonzalez, Carolyn
Brown, Drew Gaines, Cristy An-
gulo and Berenice Quirino.
The NT Daily does not necessar-
ily endorse, promote or agree with
the viewpoints of the columnists
on this page. The content of the
columns is strictly the opinion
of the writers and in no way reflect
the beliefs of the NT Daily. To in-
quire about column ideas, submit col-
umns or letters to the editor, send an
e-mail to ntviewseditor@gmail.com
Staff Editoral
At-will proposal shortchanges N sta
A new plan proposed by the Board
of Regents early this month would
change UNT's employment status for
all current and future staff members to
at-will, allowing employees to be fired at
anytime, for any reason within the law,
eliminating any due process involved
with firing them.
At a meeting Tuesday to discuss the
potential change, employees' tempers
flared. As they spoke to the board, it
became increasingly more obvious:
At-will employment status has no place
atUNT.
One man wanted to know what
would keep him from being fired a year
before his retirement to avoid paying
his pension and bringing in a less-ex-
pensive replacement. Another man
called the plan idiotic and asked how
the school planned to retain quality
faculty with policies like this.
With the original email notifying
staff of the potential change, Chancellor
Lee Jackson included a schedule for
meetings in which employees could
comment on the possibility of the
at-will proposal. If the chancellor -
who was conspicuously absent from
all meetings up to this point - truly
is taking into consideration the opin-
ions of the employees, then at-will
status will remain nothing more than
a bad idea.
There's been no justification for the
policy, leading us to believe the only
possible implications of at-will status
will be negative for UNT staff
The administration has offered little
reasoning for the decision, only stating
that it's been thrown around for the
past year. This prompted an even more
reasonable question: "Then why didn't
we know about this a year ago?"
The Employment and Policy Review
Committee originally suggested the
change about a year ago, apparently
hoping to cut down on red tape. Usually
such actions are taken to streamline
business, manufacture profit or avoid
accountability corporations need to
make it easier to fire without ramifi-
cation. UNT employees worry they
could be the victims of similar corpo-
rate thinking.
UNT's current policy is a bureau-
cratic process with things like expla-
nation and appeals. The administra-
tion claims there will be an appeals
process if the newpolicy is introduced,
but that would be contradictory to the
very nature of at-will employment. It's
fair to be skeptical of both the fairness
and effectiveness of whatever appeals
process exists within an at-will envi-
ronment.
Furthermore, this sends the wrong
message to students, employees and
outsiders about what the University of
North Texas represents.
Should we be compromising the
trust of people who work tirelessly
every day to make sure 37,000 students
receive a quality education? We should
not be redefining ourselves with some
corporate model so as to streamline our
productivity.
The primary focus needs to be
creating a positive and welcoming
environment for the UNT family.
That kind of setting is only possible if
morale is high and employees trust their
employer, things rendered impossible
by at-will employment.
Columns
Coaches must be
held to a higher
standard
By now, we have all heard what
is going on at Pennsylvania State
University.
We have also seen a number
of sad events occur at the local
level. The head basketball coach
of Flower Mound High School
was recently removed for not
reporting a serious hazing inci-
dent on his team.
This is not about Penn State. It
is not about Joe Paterno. It is not
about sports, college football or
legal obligations.
It is about trust.
I am a coach. For the past few
summers,! have coached a youth
track team in Lewisville. The
athletes I coach are shining exam-
ples of the best of our society:
dedicated, intelligent and strong.
Often, I see people who hold kids
to a higher standard than they
themselves aspire to achieve.
I'm not going to bother with any
condemnations here. I will take
issue, however, with what some
people seem to think is the major
subject in this controversy: Where
will athletics go from here?
These events will change every-
thing. They will cast even more
suspicion on the people who take
care of our children, the vast
majority of whom would never
think of committing such atro-
cious acts, or of not reporting
them to the police.
What happened may have
cracked open the door to stop-
ping this kind of crime, but it has
also allowed the stench from the
other room to permeate the air
on our side.
As coaches, we should learn
how to deal with certain events
from an ethical perspective rather
than just a legal one.
Furthermore, let's practice the
same principles we teach our
kids: that the bare minimum - in
academics, in athletics, in ethics
- will not be acceptable.
We cannot just be coaches, or
teachers, or parents - we must be
human beings as well.
Brandon Cooper is a kinesi-
ology graduate student. He can
be reached at runfellow@gmail.
com.
Abolishing ederal
loans would be
disastrous
Rick Perry's senior moment in
Wednesday's GOP presidential debate
was cringe inducing. But it was two
of the other candidates on stage that
should be hanging their heads in
shame.
Texas Rep. Ron Paul and former
House Speaker Newt Gingrich both,
incredibly, called for abolishing the
federal student loan program, saying
it was "an absurdity" that is "dramati-
cally failing."
Perry seemed to imply he agreed.
None of them, surely, is among the tens
of millions of low and middle-income
students - 9 million in the last academic
year alone - who relied on a federally
backed student loan to pay for college.
Eliminating the loans and subjecting
students to the vagaries of the private
market would put college out of reach
for many while increasing indebted-
ness for others.
Either way, the nation's ability to
develop an educated workforce for the
coming decades - an already imperiled
but crucial national priority - will be
further damaged.
The private market had b een wasteful
and in some cases predatory, charging
high rates and fees and misleading
consumers, according to a 2008 study
by the National Consumer LawCenter.
Even worse, the private market nearly
froze during the economic collapse.
Thankfully, the government was
making the majority of student loans
at the time. But imagine if Paul and
Gingrich's ideologically pure vision
were reality, and there were no federal
loans. Even as demand surgedfor higher
education, students wouldhave no way
to pay for it. Or rather, poor and middle-
class students wouldn't.
The wealthy, as ever, would be fine.
That's why federal loan subsidies -
along with Pell Grants, which conser-
vatives also attack - are so important.
California alone expects a shortfall of
1 million college graduates to fill jobs
by 2025.
There's no way to close that gap
if only the rich can afford an educa-
tion.
Student loan debt approaches $1 tril-
lion nationwide. It's a serious problem.
But abolishing federal loans is no
answer, any more than eliminating
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac would
end the foreclosure crisis.
An educated workforce is precisely
what government shouldbe investing in
for the long-term. It's no different from
other kinds of infrastructure that help
everyone prosper. Leaving this to the
private market would be devastating to
poor andmiddle-class students, to busi-
nesses and to our future prosperity.
Come to think of it, only banks
would benefit from Paul and Gingrich's
idea.
This column appeared in San Jose
Mercury News on Friday, Nov. 11
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HAVE A 9EAT, BUT DON'T SET TOO COMFY. IT'9 SPRING LOADED.
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Pherigo, Josh. North Texas Daily (Denton, Tex.), Vol. 98, No. 48, Ed. 1 Wednesday, November 16, 2011, newspaper, November 16, 2011; Denton, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth209202/m1/7/: accessed April 30, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Special Collections.