University of Virginia Library

Letters To The Editor

State Neglects Security Force, Blacks

I was pleasantly surprised to
see Mr. Tim Wheeler's article in
the Jan. 12 issue of The
Cavalier Daily concerning the
depressed wages of University
employees. However, I feel
that Mr. Wheeler failed to take
note of two important groups
of State employees:

1) Our fine Security Force
is grossly underpaid for the
services they perform for the
students, faculty, and
administrators.

2) Black workers, because
of the abundance of white
racism at the University,
generally enjoy lower pay and
status than the white workers.

These are but a few of the
exploitative practices in the
Charlottesville-Albemarle area,
but since it concerns the
students, they can do
something about it.

Brotherhood

I congratulate you on your
excellent article by Beverly
Dowell concerning the
depression and difficulties of
adjustment that can occur at
the University. As this
institution continues to
expand, I am sure that an
increasing number of students
will face these problems at one
time or another.

This is precisely why
fraternities have existed at the
University for over one
hundred years, and why they
will continue to play an
increasingly vital role in
student life. When all the
activities of a fraternity are
discounted, they provide an
atmosphere in which a person
can deal with his problems of
adjustment with help from
others.

Countless times fraternities
have helped first-year men to
overcome the turmoils of
entering college and eventually
growing up. As the article
out, it is oftentimes
enough to simply know that
one is wanted.

I must therefore take
exception with Miss Dowell's
conclusion; when a person
really needs it, uncritical love is
alive and well on Rugby Road
and Madison Lane. It's called
brotherhood.

Ticket Lottery

I find it hard to believe that
there has yet to be a single
comment made in objection to
the new method of distributing
tickets to Virginia's basketball
games. It is to me
incomprehensible that the
cretins in the Athletic
Department, and worse, on the
Student Council, could expect
any student to waste two
complete days a week so that
he might watch 80 minutes of
basketball, quite possibly from
a seat high in the rafters.

It is clearly discriminatory
against those who do not have
the option of cutting classes all
day just to go sit in U.Hall. An
attempt to give medical
students a break through early
distribution has met with
objections from others who
also feel compelled to put their
tuition to use, and they are
right. Why should anyone have
greater access to tickets than
anyone else?

Since Virginia is always
fashionably behind the times,
someday the notion of an
equal, unbiased lottery will
cross someone's mind. Would it
be so hard to go and sign your
name and let (God forbid) a
computer randomly pick a list
of names?

This would not only be fair,
it would be fast, and would
give the basketball fan a second
option–that of going to class.

Mending Fences

Now that the Vietnam war
has ended let us, the American
people, mend the ties to our
European friends that were
strained by the armed conflict.

On my last trip through
Sweden during the Christmas
vacation, I gained the
impression that the Swedish
people were strongly opposed
to the U.S. military action in
SoutheastAsia. Viewing detailed
television coverage there of the
most recent bombing of
Vietnam, I felt acute
embarrassment for being an
American held responsible for
my government's policy.

But now with the cease-fire
agreement in force, there is
time to restore Europe's
confidence in America as a
peace-loving nation.

My recommendation is that
the University of Virginia
sponsor a meeting of U.S. and
European representatives and
scholars to discuss the Atlantic
community in a post-Vietnam
war era.

This is one thing we can do
to prevent further abuse of
our European allies' loyalty.