University of Arizona president must go now. But that's just the first step
Long ago I had the privilege to serve as the first student member of the Board of Regents. It is because of that background that I view the circumstances of the University of Arizona (from which I hold 2 degrees) with great sadness.
Nor do I suspect that we have heard the last of the revelations that will continue to rock our faith in UA or the board. That will all play out with a fair process and continued excellent local reporting.
Instead, we should focus on how to keep this from happening again.
First, the failures of the current UA administration are so severe that the president must go now, not in two years.
Second, I hope the new regent appointments made by Gov. Katie Hobbs will be speedily confirmed by the Senate and bring skills critical to the mission of investigation and rebuilding trust between the various constituencies, including academic, student and community.
Third, it is long past time to put an end to the expensive competition between our universities. There was simply no need for UA to buy an online institution to compete with ASU’s excellent program.
Let’s turn our focus to the fix and the future.
Andrew Federhar, Phoenix
Women's other rights are at risk
Bans on abortions is not about helping “babies” — it is about limiting women’s roles in society to what men think women should or should not do.
If Republicans really cared about children, they would work toward improving education for all children, no matter their ZIP code. If Republicans cared about children, all children would have automatic access to health care, regardless of parents income.
By government limiting women’s roles to brood mares, it also sets the stage for the government coming for other “rights” that women think they have.
Just wait, they’ll come for your checking account next because if a women isn’t capable of making decisions about her own life and family, she surely can’t be trusted with financial decisions.
Patricia Leyba, Phoenix
Stronger air pollution rules save lives
The Environmental Protection Agency recently strengthened national air quality standards for particle pollution.
Such pollution poses serious risks to our health and can be deadly. Even brief exposure can worsen symptoms for the roughly 174,000 children in Arizona with asthma.
Fortunately, stronger standards will result in fewer asthma attacks, heart attacks and strokes.
This is especially important in Phoenix, as our city has some of the country’s worst air, per the American Lung Association’s “State of the Air” report.
Stronger standards mean that many polluting industry sources must use modern pollution controls to reduce their air pollution. Because of this, polluting industries are pushing back with false and misleading claims about these lifesaving standards.
This rule has the potential to prevent 4,500 premature deaths and alleviate 800,000 cases of asthma symptoms in its first year of full implementation.
The bottom line is that the stronger particle pollution standards will save lives.
Still, there is more work to do to ensure clean air for all Arizonans. Please call on President Biden clean up toxic emissions and set limits on carbon pollution.
JoAnna Strother, Phoenix
Poor care? Blame Medicare payments
My husband Raymond and I met on a blind date. Three months later, his kidney unexpectedly failed, and I have walked alongside him on his patient journey ever since. My husband’s life depends on dialysis, the treatment that does what his kidney can’t do.
Unfortunately, we confronted problems with our dialysis center that reflect larger trends caused by insufficient reimbursements from the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).
Our nation is confronting a demographic crisis, with fewer working-aged people and more patients, which is why we are seeing worsening shortages of health care workers.
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CMS’ reimbursements have been far below the inflation rate, which means providers will not be able to hire and keep necessary staff. For us, we see that dialysis centers simply cannot afford to hire nurses, and therefore cannot afford to provide quality care.
We need to improve the quality of care in all health care facilities throughout the country. Optimal care requires sufficient funding, and CMS is failing to meet the mark.
I hope CMS recognizes the declining state of health care services in this country and decides to increase its reimbursements next year.
Analyn Scott, Laveen
Take your politics out of my water
Lawmakers who entertain the machinations of developers and land speculators to find a way to maintain the unsustainable level of development and water use in the desert have earned a prominent spot on Arizona’s “wall of shame” for politicians; a wall big enough to cover the entire border with Mexico.
While this type of low level politics and favoritism is a disease long present in Arizona, employing it to undermine water policies is particularly reprehensible.
Save for a few honorable and intelligent souls who try to actually govern in the public interest and promote common sense policies, the bunch of disingenuous opportunists promoting ways to circumvent needed reforms in water use laws are playing with an issue that is a matter of long-term survival in the desert Southwest.
Sadly, it’s enough to make us wish they would just go back to heisting the state coffers to subsidize ESAs and promoting their inane social policies.
Warren Kotzmann, Gilbert
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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: University of Arizona president must go, former Arizona Regent says
