YSU can't pretend that it's worried about kids

YSU can't pretend thatit's worried about kids
EDITOR:
Please no more whining about budget cuts at Youngstown State University. No more false pretense about how the kids will suffer and be shortchanged.
Sweet did not even meet his own goals -- a 5 percent increase in enrollment. But this didn't stop the trustees from awarding him an increase of over $25,000. Incredible. My, this must be such an encouragement to the YSU students who have had repeated tuition increases. Sweet should have refused these increases until a balanced budget is found, and until tuition rates stabilize.
Finally, will someone please explain to the out-of-touch trustees that the cost of living in the Mahoning Valley is perhaps the lowest in the state -- that it does not matter what university presidents in Columbus and Cleveland earn. You cannot directly compare salaries without considering the cost of housing and other economic factors in each of the specific communities. I would propose that Sweet is paid more than most Ohio university presidents when this is considered.
Gee, I wonder if President Sweet can make ends meet with an annual package of just $260,720. Wake up, trustees! Haven't we seen enough mismanagement from the boards of Enron, Worldcom and GE? Now, this self-serving blindness has rolled into our local university. I challenge President Sweet to do the right thing -- refuse this ill-conceived raise.
JOHN SHAFFER
Bristolville
Constitution says nothing about wall of separation between church, state
EDITOR:
I'm writing in regard to the "How They See It" columns of Sept. 24. The man who wrote the "Science classes aren't Sunday schools" article is like most other people who have no belief in anything but themselves. They actually believe that the Founding Fathers didn't want the Bible taught in schools!
I have a copy of the Constitution and "separation of church and state" is not mentioned in it. That phrase came from Thomas Jefferson and what he said was that there should be a wall between the church and the government. He said that so neither could control the other, not so they would be totally separate.
If anybody has ever read almost any of the Founding Fathers personal letters or political correspondence they would realize that when John Adams or George Washington said that when something occurred by divine providence they were not talking about a TV show. They were talking about God. A God who if he existed (which he does) would have most likely have had something to do with the creation of the world.
The big bang theory proves that God existed. He said BANG! and there's the Earth for you. So it strikes me as funny that the Rev. Barry W. Lynn actually believes that by trying to get creationism taught alongside evolution is a "gambit." The true gambit was when evolution got into schools in the first place! I'm a Christian and obviously I believe in creation by GOD, and wouldn't mind seeing evolution taught alongside creationism and other theories that are out there, as long as it gives the kids a chance to get all sides.
What we are doing now is comparable to only watching one news channel. You're just getting one side of the story. You can't teach the youth of our once grand nation a theory as fact, or we will have an even more close-minded nation than we do now.
JEFFREY S. MOLITERNO
Canifeld
A little bit of sunshine
EDITOR:
Many thanks to the individuals or department personnel who scattered seeds of sunshine along the interstate highways throughout Mahoning and Trumubll counties. Each time I drive by one of the patches of sunflowers with their heads lifted to the sun, I have to smile.
MARIANNE MASTROPIETRO
Austintown