Letter and Emails

Honors students explain perks

THE RECENT OPINION piece entitled "Good for Few, Bad for Most" voiced several legitimate concerns about possible inequalities created by the university's honors program (UHP). Several UHP students would like to clarify these misunderstandings to promote a better understanding of how the honors program works.

Priority registration enables students to schedule required classes around fixed times for honors classes necessary to satisfy UHP requirements. Athletes are similarly granted priority registration to coordinate academic schedules around regular practices. Priority registration does not give UHP students an unfair advantage; rather, it makes it possible to combine an honors curriculum with that of a given major. (Keep in mind that e-campus limits registration for every student at 19 units.)

Individual UHP scholarships are paid out of the university's aggregate income from student tuition, corporate donations, and interest income on the university's endowment. Funds are drawn from the same pool that supplies other financial aid disbursements such as athletic scholarships, department awards, and the tuition remission plan that enables children of faculty members to attend Santa Clara at no cost.

UHP classes, like upper-division classes, are capped to create more depth in a smaller, seminar-style setting. Professors that teach honors classes are not exclusive to the program.

The honors program allows motivated students to challenge themselves with academically rigorous coursework. Like every other university, Santa Clara rewards these individuals for their effort by enabling them to work toward their full potential.

Brian Traglio, accounting and philosophy, '03

Denis Vrdoljak, engineering-physics and philosophy, '05

Hussein poses urgent threat

I FIND IT disturbing that Troy Simpson's attempt at objective journalism in last weeks' paper pitted the opinions of two freshmen in support of action in Iraq against the opinions of two upperclassmen, a leader of a campus organization, and four professors with anti-action opinions. The attempt to portray people who advocate action in Iraq as uninformed is laughable.

Our president and his advisors are not lost, disillusioned, or selling a lie to the American people. It is perfectly acceptable to disagree with the American government, but attempts to cast the president and those that support him as uninformed are absurd.

Some decry military action because there isn't an imminent threat to our nation from Iraq. I ask them: why then is the Hussein regime risking so much to gain weapons of mass destruction? Hussein will attempt to hold Kuwait, Saudi Arabia or parts of Europe hostage when he is capable. When he does, the U.S. economy will suffer greatly, and U.S. military personnel will be obliged to respond. Hussein's alleged ties to Al Queda are also an important threat to our nation - remember Sept. 11?

Finally, those who whimper "violence is never the answer" should remember how Nazi rule was terminated and how the Taliban's oppression of Afghani women has ended - just two examples of how violence, as a thoughtful and final option undertaken somberly, has worked for the good of our world. People of character rise up when the time comes to address evil like the Hussein Regime. Hussein's violations of the world's will are fact. It's time to disarm him.

J. Chris Hatcher,

MBA, '04