I was pleased to read that the ill-advised Student Life Center plan was put on the back burner for a couple of months. However, I fear that this is just a delay orchestrated by the Board of Regents, “Fast” Eddie Williams and his partner in crime Barbara Henley, whose job ironically is Student Affairs not cowtowing to the administration. Once again the snake oil salespeople are trying to sell us a miracle cure-all pill that after being swallowed only serves to miraculously lighten your wallet by between $35 and $45 depending on how large of a dose you are willing to buy. This university is currently going through rough economic times and now is not the moment to burden the students with a unneeded building which will only serve to provide some career bureaucrats with a larger office.

To illustrate the problems, I would like to quote Dean Richard Brown from the Nov. 13 Northern Star. “No one is really sure how bad things are,” he stated. He went on to add that students are likely to see effects as they saw them last semester, only worse. He also stated that class demands may not be met and instructors will be cut, and that if the current recession runs bigger than two percent we won’t have equipment to use.

Every day there is more bad news in the paper about the state of NIU, but if you believe the way to solve the problem is to raise our fees and increase the amount of office space then I have a bridge in Brooklyn to sell you that’s a steal.

The leaders of this university need to sit down and seriously prioritize the needs and analyze the roots of the existing problems. The only way to improve is to start working on the most severe and immediate problems facing us. I challenge any of the Life Center cronies to seriously rationalize why it is that this will solve the most severe and immediate problems facing us and then publish it in the Northern Star so the students can evaluate the merits of the plan. Just between you and me, if I were you I would not bring up the topics of classroom overcrowding, teachers leaving due to low pay and a registration and add/drop system that should have been modernized back in the 70s.

Robert F. Harris

College Republicans