Immigrants suffer in US universities

Hats off to Logan Krusac for making light of the burdens on students from other countries.

My girlfriend, who is Columbian, recently came to the states with her family in ’07.

Though she was a phenomenal student in high school — attaining an outstanding GPA, passing several AP exams and getting admitted to UGA as a freshman — she faced the burden of having to pay out-of-state tuition with no chance of help from scholarships, especially HOPE.

Even though she’s lived in Georgia for 4 years, she is not fully considered a resident. Her only option, like Krusac mentioned, was to drop out of school.

Hopefully the next time she and her family go to court to attempt to gain her full citizenship, she’ll have the same opportunities as the rest of us who are more fortunate.

Stephen Osborne
Junior, Buford
English

Blame parking problem, not scooters

I’m tired of hearing police Chief Jimmy Williamson relentlessly bash scooter drivers for things that are out of their control.

Every single scooter corral on campus, save maybe one or two, are only accessible by crossing a sidewalk.

In the case of the ill-fated corral in front of Joe Frank Harris Commons, riders had to push their moped 35 feet up a hill to leave. To suggest that riders should dismount their scooters, and push the 150 pound vehicle up a ramp or hill just to park it is completely insane.

Would you make somebody push their car into a parking space?

If the University Police and Parking Services really want to solve the problem, they should have built the new surface lots like they planned, before closing two of the busiest corrals on campus for 2010-2011.

Parking Services is to blame for the headaches, and nobody else.

Joseph Trotochaud
Junior, Athens
Agricultural engineering

Stimulus cartoon factually accurate

Apparently certain people responding to this cartoon yesterday don’t have their statistics straight.

Yes, George Bush did sign off on a stimulus package, but after Obama took office he signed off on a second stimulus package that was significantly larger than the first. Obama also authorized the bailouts of the auto industry — among others.

Bush’s stimulus package did add debt to the nation. But Obama’s added a significant amount more, and given the government more intrusion into the lives of everyday Americans.

Therefore Phillip Henry’s cartoon was not inaccurate.

Ryan Ricks
Junior, Savannah
Criminal justice and
Political science