SEMO should cut wasteful spending

To the editor:

I just read where Southeast Missouri State University is raising tuition again. Officials say it is to help balance the budget. If the university would stop its wasteful spending habits, it would not need to raise tuition.

We don't need huge waterfall signs, new pools, ridiculous amounts of handouts, fountains, worthless studies like the mascot issue, presidential perks or new textbooks every time a new edition is released. Public schools use textbooks until they fall apart, and then they duct tape them until they can fit them in the budget. Why not the university?

Why do some people at graduation get full steak dinners when the graduates, families and friends get only orange juice mixed with a little Canada Dry. We sit there for over two hours listening to boring speeches and music that sucks, and we only get a little OJ. We attend school for over four years paying the high tuition, and what's the reward? A little OJ. How is this fair?

And why is it that there are no working clocks on campus? This would explain why students are late and miss classes.

I don't have any children yet, but I already know that my children will not attend SEMO. I refuse to allow them to attend a university that follows the examples set by the federal government. Stop the waste, SEMO, before you lose any more future money.

DANA JOHNSTON, Jackson