To the editor:
The university community lost a devoted staff member when Mary Comeaux died at the age of 36 in October 1996. Mary served as Director of Campus Ministry at the UH Catholic Center, and she was the first lay woman in the Galveston/Houston diocese to serve as director.
To commemorate our friend and colleague, we have raised funds to create and install a meditation garden at the Catholic Newman Center (across Calhoun from Entrance 1). The project is being coordinated by myself and Jim Halloran, a fifth-year architecture student. Many students have worked several weekends to install the garden. The final work day will be held Sunday, April 6, from 1 to 5 p.m. The Mary T. Comeaux Meditation Garden will be dedicated at 6 p.m. on Saturday, April 12, which is Mary's birthday.
Betty Bollinger
director, Computer Design Center
University of Houston Hines College of Architecture
To the editor:
I am an avid reader of The Daily Cougar and was really disappointed when I read the paper this morning (Friday, March 21). I read the cartoon on Page 3. I would like to believe the editorial staff did not review the cartoon and sent it to print.
There are many people working very hard to continue to make the Frontier Fiesta a continuing success. Yet one simple item such as the editorial cartoon can do much to put a negative reflection upon this fine event.
Everyone involved is working very hard to make this event attractive to all people both within the university and to all the public.
The freedom of speech and of press are what make our country so great. The power of the press is one of the most powerful expressions of freedom in the world. Yet we still need to consider what is allowed to print. That is the reason for editors and editorial staff.
I guess I only have two questions for you:
1.) Why?
2.) What happened to your talented cartoonists such as Palamidy?
Larkin M. Buechmann
supervisor, Building Services
Editor's note: Mr. Palamidy is alive and well, and can be found daily on the cartoon page.
To the editor:
I have been increasingly disturbed with what has been going into the editorial section of The Daily Cougar lately, but I feel everyone has a right to their opinion as long as it doesn't interfere with anyone else. The editorial cartoon that was printed on March 21, however, does interfere with other people. That cartoon does nothing but hurt the efforts of the university to bring all the students together.
It is closed-minded racist people like the editorial staff who keep the racial barriers up in this university. This cartoon makes people who do not know very much about Frontier Fiesta have a distorted image of the festival. I know many people working on Frontier Fiesta, none of whom are white.
The editorial staff at The Daily Cougar is so negative about the school it is no wonder why so many people at the university thinks the school "sucks." If you all are so negative about the school, why don't you get your degree somewhere else?
I am sick of the pessimistic attitudes you all give about this school. Maybe if you all participate in some of the activities, you will see that the school isn't as bad as you all make it out to be.
Catherine St. John
junior, education
To the editor:
I would like to agree with Luis Jones about the campus food service (March 21, Letters). As a student of this university for four years and now an occasional visitor, I have seen the food prices skyrocket while the quality of neither the food nor the service has improved.
As a former dormitory resident, I can remember when the meals on campus cost residents $3.50, which equated to a meal "click." Each resident bought a certain number of "clicks" per semester, and that comprised the student's meal plan. Now, under an a la carte plan, food typically costs between $5 and $6.
I understand that during the last four years Aramark, the university's food service vendor, did much renovation to both Moody Towers' and Oberholtzer Hall's cafeterias. However, students are paying more than market value for food on campus. This is not right.
When I was a student, it was much more advantageous to go off campus to eat, although more cumbersome.
It's time for the university and the company to "put their money where their mouths are" and prove to the campus community that they are truly looking out for the best interests of the students, staff and alumni.
James Aldridge
UH alumnus
To the editor:
I am a black male who was stationed in Germany in the U.S. Army for three years. I can tell you, according to my own experience, that it always felt like being home. I made some good friends with the local families, and I plan to take my family there to visit, to show them the neatness of that country and the rich culture it has.
The article about some Jewish students invited by the German government (March 14), in my opinion, was very biased. Can the person who wrote that article at least admit some gesture of good will?
Let the American people have the opportunity to judge by themselves, not through the eyes of a person who is obviously dwelling in the past, an unwise way to live. Learn from the past, but live the present. Teach, but do not saturate.
L. Lewis
senior, engineering