UCI Hunger Strikers Are Misguided
* Re: “Hunger Strikers at UCI Protest Regents’ Policies” (Oct. 18), concerning students who are protesting the ending of affirmative-action programs: I venture to speak for the millions of first-generation Americans whose non-English-speaking, uneducated and financially poor parents came here from Europe.
We were reared in homes that never had a telephone or an automobile. When we entered public school, English was our second language. There were no aid programs and no bilingual education. A high percentage of us went on to university degrees and graduate school.
Those protesting students and their followers should quit whining and channel their energies into making it on their own. It builds character and makes one a better person. Life is a marketplace--produce and compete.
NICK NOVICK
Irvine
* The article states that the protesters at UC Irvine are seeking a lowering of student fees by 135% over the next five years.
Either the math classes at UCI are woefully inadequate or the striking students are asking the university to actually pay them for attending. A reduction in fees of 100% would mean no fees whatsoever; any reduction beyond 100% would mean UCI would end up paying for students. Oh well, maybe that is worth starving for.
ROBERT E. MYERS
Irvine
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