Spinnaker [Distributed: Wednesday, January 31, 2007]

An army of new fees is marching over the horizon toward the wallets of next year's University of North Florida students, intent on thinning its enemy's numbers to zero.

Any foresighted general would have cause at this point to make the necessary preparations to be sure his soldiers can withstand the battle. More than that, though, any reflective general would make sure he knows damn well why his army's fighting in the first place.

Without such a leader on campus to reassure students as to why their fees keep going up, it's left to each individual among the student body of 16,000 or so to understand for themselves where their money is going.

This becomes a problem for two reasons: one, because common sense derived from historical trends indicates most students have no idea how their $111.75 per credit hour (assuming they're in-state undergraduate students) is being spent; and two, because the entity assessing the fees has made it abundantly clear how much you owe and what the consequences are if you don't pay, but not what programs you are implicitly funding with your tuition.

Most students, for example, probably aren't aware that only $73.71 of the money they pay per credit hour - that's about 66 percent - goes to what's called the matriculation fee, which actually funds classes, pays teachers and keeps the university running.

The remaining $38.04 is directed toward a host of other programs - athletics, building, financial aid, counseling and the like.

Athletics takes the lion's share of the money post-matriculation at $12.25 per credit hour. That might not seem like much, but multiply it over the average students 15-credit-hour load per semester and that's $183.75 out of the pocket of each and every student that attends UNF.

The next largest fee is for Activity & Service - $7.49 per credit hour - which in essence is money Student Government allocates to be spent as they see fit.

Many university employees are paid out of that money, and a lot of the campaign promises students hear come election time have been and will be funded from that money as well.

The third largest fee students pay with every semester hour is the Student Union fee. This amount, currently $4.24 per credit hour, is specifically charged for the purpose of funding the construction of a Student Union building on campus.

That's all well and good - until you look at the historical figures since its approval in November 2000.

The trend has been and continues to be a higher and higher fee for a building the construction of which gets pushed farther and farther back in time.

It's not necessarily a bad thing that students pay for more than just classes when they come to UNF. If anything, it's the only way the campus will be able to continue to grow and the administration will be able to pursue different projects that will improve student life.

But unless students keep the fee-assessing authorities in check in the only way they can - by being informed - it could become increasingly easy for activities behind the scenes to multiply until everyone's paying into a mixed hat of projects, the worthiness of some being more than dubious, like federal income tax.

Government surveillance is risky business

Editorial

It's no secret that since Sept. 11, the federal government seems intent on finding out exactly what it is that U.S. citizens are up to.

Illegal wire tapping through the National Security Agency has forced Internet search engines to turn over inquiry results. In a more recent move, legislators in New York City have turned the wheels on a bill aiming to increase the number of surveillance cameras posted in the city by 500, costing the city $9.1 million.

If the issues in New York seem far off and removed because of location, they shouldn't - the University of North Florida is being monitored too.

According to Mark Foxworth, UPD chief of police, the campus has no less than 48 security cameras posted all over campus recording 24 hours a day. None of the cameras are posted in classrooms, and the majority of them are hung outside where they can observe large chunks of UNF at once.

The creepiest part about all of this isn't that students are being watched while they're on campus, but that most students have no idea about it. Arguments for cameras on UNF's campus and in NYC abound: more visual evidence in courtrooms and forcing criminals and terrorists to think twice about being filmed in the act are just a few of the proposed advantages.

Providing visual evidence in the courtroom is one thing, but claiming that cameras could help prevent crime or terrorism by stopping it before it happens is simply absurd. Cameras in both the London and Madrid subways caught images of terrorists prior to them ever stepping foot on the trains they would later blow up.

While the federal authorities' intentions may be good, that doesn't make them right. The power to constantly watch over, record and judge human behavior is a right reserved for omnipotent beings - gods and Santa Claus - not one given to a government.

The problem here isn't that people don't want to be caught doing illegal things, but that once this sort of power is given away, it's not very easily taken back. Under the wrong circumstances, this eye-in-the-sky technology could be used for evil.

The ability to watch people as they carry out their daily lives is a power far too great to be wielded by any government.

The room for error here is huge, and the consequences could be immense. Governments are run by human beings, infinitely corruptible and deceivable. We're better off leaving omnipotence to those who can handle it.

Turn or burn? Try turning the other cheek

Staff Opinion

If you are a student at the University of North Florida who has spent any time walking past the Green, it is inevitable that you've seen them. Lofting larger-than-life signs bearing inflammatory statements such as "Turn or burn" and screaming like a televangelist on speed, these "men of God" regularly occupy the center of campus, decrying anyone within earshot.

With deadly conviction, these religious zealots condemn females as responsible for original sin, homosexuality for corrupting the institution of marriage, and people of other faiths as Godless pagans that will writhe in agony for eternity.

Instead of espousing the positive aspects of religious beliefs, these modern-day Pharisees aim below the belt with their fire and brimstone rhetoric designed to put the fear of God into the public.

While it may be tempting to engage these misguided proselytizers in casual conversation, do yourself a favor and walk away. By acknowledging these people's presence, we simply vindicate their beliefs that they are accomplishing something. The more dissenting opinions tossed their way, the more opportunities they think they have to convert the heathen masses.

By acting as though their presence is of no consequence, their power to influence and manipulate is rendered obsolete. Also, it is pretty damn amusing to see a grown man shouting his lungs out while people walk by, oblivious to his noxious presence.

How can any rational human being take someone's opinion seriously when it is directly followed by an angry tirade about how Mohandas Gandhi is occupying the lowest circles of hell simply because of his religious beliefs?

Now this is just me, but I'd rather take my chances with Gandhi than spend any time listening to a delusional bigot hoisting a 15-foot sign while waiting for the second coming of his messiah.

The next time you see one of these holier-than-thou hypocrites, simply think about the words of one of history's most revered religious figures. Turn the other cheek.

America may not be ready for female in White House

Student Opinion

Chances are if you've opened a newspaper or watched any cable news network or even taken a breath lately, you've realized the hot debate now is about whether America is ready for a female president.

This question has been stirring up debates since former First Lady and Democratic Sen. Hillary Clinton of New York began suggesting that she might be interested in a presidential run. Now that Clinton has formally announced the starting of her presidential campaign, there's an official face behind the question. Geena Davis also added to the discussion in the television show "Commander in Chief," in which she played the first female president of the United States. But with Clinton as the official face, the question has now become is America ready for Hillary?

Female leaders are nothing new for foreign countries; in fact, the United States is one out of only three major nations to never have had a female leader - the other two being Italy and Japan.

However, the tide might be turning in America with Nancy Pelosi becoming the first female speaker of the House of Representatives. It seems that many views on women in power may be changing. In polls conducted for Time, CNN, Fox News, CBS, NBC and Newsweek, Clinton was the lead Democratic candidate for the 2008 election.

Nonetheless, there are still those out there who feel America is not ready. Just surfing through Web discussion forums on the topic almost always yields very interesting responses. On one particular Web site, one poster said, "Having a woman president will only make America look like a joke and will invite terrorists to attack us." Another poster said, "A woman president would have to work twice as hard as the men to prove that she is worth it."

On the other hand, when it came to Clinton herself, posters seemed to be even more critical of her. One poster said, "If the election were held today I would not vote for her because I cannot relate to her ... she does not seem very homely." A similar comment by another poster said, "Hillary is way too aggressive." I am assuming these posters would like Clinton to bake cookies in between her conferences with foreign leaders.

Whether America is ready for a female president, or specifically Hillary Clinton, will only be told with time. In the mean time, the debate continues on.

Health care was never guaranteed in Constitution

Student Opinion

Presidential hopeful and Democratic Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois recently announced his plan to provide health care for every American by the year 2012.

Other presidential hopefuls, such as Democratic Sen. Hillary Clinton of New York and John Edwards, have also at times stated interest in providing the universal service to appear concerned about the well-being of the 46 million Americans who do not have health insurance.

These Democrats are not the only ones that seem concerned about the welfare of people, though.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is still claiming victory for increasing the national minimum wage from $5.15 to $7.25. Up to 13 million Americans, she said, will benefit from the increase.

But while the intentions of the liberals seem good and noble, their motivations are simply flawed.

Health care and decent pay, they claim, are the rights of all who live in the United States of America.

And though I agree that helping those in need is a necessity to any healthy civilization, I am disgusted at the flippant use of the term "right" by Democrats in this country.

As the Founding Fathers so eloquently wrote in the Declaration of Independence, all Americans are entitled to "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness."

These are considered by most to be the few unalienable rights of human beings. Most Americans - including myself - believe that these values are what should be provided for all people without dispute.

Through the lenses of today's Democrats, however, these liberties are simply not good enough. They demand health care, education and equal wealth distribution because they are the "rights" of every American.

What they don't see, however, is that the words penned in the Declaration do not guarantee us life, liberty and pursuit of happiness - or whatever else they would like to add - but merely the ability to obtain them through hard work.

Simply put, government is in no way responsible for providing its people with these values, but it is restricted from stopping us from acquiring them on our own.

The problem is that many Americans have become so dependent on the government that they no longer know how to provide for themselves. With provisions like universal health care and government-imposed raises, who needs to work hard? After all, we deserve them!

Americans, in turn, have become lazy and irresponsible, knowing that Congress will be right behind them pushing them through a decent life.

Oh, the horror that could overcome our Founding Fathers if they could only see what their country has become - a country where people expect to get what they want just because it exists!

Don't get me wrong. I am not a mean-spirited person, nor do I believe in leaving people helpless with no hope for tomorrow.

But I do believe the way to help others is to teach them to work hard for what they want and not expect to be handed everything on a silver platter.

The ability to work hard, after all, is the right of every American. Health care is not.

Affordable education should be No. 1 priority for lawmakers

College affordability is big deal. Just ask my students. I teach at a university where 75 percent of students work to put themselves through school.

The majority of students are the first generation in their families to attend college and, each day, many of them juggle school, work and family obligations. They come to the university with the profound hope that higher education will provide them knowledge, stable employment, financial security and a better life - the dreams of college students all over the United States.

In recent days, the dreams and hopes of America's youth have been the subject of debate among lawmakers. The U.S. House recently voted to decrease the interest rate on federally subsidized loans to college students from 6.8 percent to 3.4 gradually over the next five years.

Recently, both Democrats and Republicans proposed ways to make college accessible to students, ranging from the cuts in interest rates to increased financial aid. They have also called on universities to lower their tuitions.

Between 1994 and 2004, the average price for undergraduate tuition, room, and board at public colleges increased by 30 percent, according to the U.S. Department of Education. The increase was even higher at private institutions.

Students considering higher education can face many obstacles. Paying for college is often high on the list. Last fall the Commission on the Future of Higher Education issued a report that said that rising costs discourage students from entering college. The fear of high debt inhibits others from considering college.

Making college accessible to students is one of the best ways to invest in our nation's future. Entering the 21st century, students' access to an affordable college education must be a national priority.

At the beginning of each semester, when I look out at the faces looking back at me, I can't help but think about the dreams they bring with them. For our nation's sake, let's help make their dreams a reality.

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services -- PERMALINK -- TOP OF PAGE

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DISCOURSE

Fees: Whose pocket is your penny in?

Editorial

Government surveillance is risky business

Editorial

Turn or burn? Try turning the other cheek

Staff Opinion

America may not be ready for female in White House

Student Opinion

Health care was never guaranteed in Constitution

Student Opinion

Affordable education should be No. 1 priority for lawmakers

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