State shouldn't cut student aid

The Mississippi Legislature is planning a budget-cut, and Mississippi's students may suffer. To compensate for low tax revenue, the legislature is considering cutting back on state-funded financial aid, such as MTAG and MESG.

Many students here at Ole Miss and throughout Mississippi depend on these scholarships. The state-funded financial aid helped in my decision to come to a four-year college as a freshman. I counted on having these scholarships for four years, as I am sure many other students did. The unexpected loss of this money will make it hard for some students to pay for school.

The Mississippi Legislature should recognize the importance of this financial aid to the students. Cutting the budget in other areas or using the "rainy day" fund would be a better solution than cutting financial aid.

Christi Thrasher
Sophomore-Pharmacy

Coverage of drinking at ASB Cabinet meeting was overblown

I read The DM every day. Typically you report things that are of general interest to me in some way or another.

For the past few days, I have been totally outraged at what is considered news. The fact that some of the Senate members gathered socially at El Charro, ate and had a few drinks is not news, whether they were members of the student government or not.

If you consider this to be a newsworthy event, why don't I see reports every time 10 or 12 friends get together and drink 'til dawn if they all happen to be football players, because I know that happens on a regular basis. And to tell the truth, I really don't care. If they are drinking responsibly and not spending my money to do it, it's not an issue, and certainly not an event worthy of being published in a newspaper.

There is absolutely nothing gained by anyone having this set of articles published and on the front page. You used headlines that made the whole school look bad. "Students indifferent to alcohol at meeting" sounds like the student body here at Ole Miss accepts the fact that there is alcohol at meetings of this nature. So now, the whole school looks bad.

As a student here, I am mortified. If you would spend more time researching the facts and reporting actual news events, you wouldn't have to waste column space for three or four days in a row printing retractions. I believe that the Senate is owed your deepest apologies.

Jessica Snare
Junior-English Major