William Mulholland’s legacy; Cal State tuition increases; and assessing the space shuttle program

L.A.’s water visionary

Re “Mulholland’s Los Angeles,” Editorial, July 10

Though he was a poor geologist (the St. Francis Dam disaster), William Mulholland’s environmental legacy is remarkably positive.

His 220-mile-long aqueduct is an engineering masterpiece, entirely gravity-fed. It produces hydroelectric power. Contrast this with the California State Water Project of the1970s, which expends more energy than any single operation in California to pump water over the Tehachapi Mountains.

Even Mulholland’s impact on the now-arid Owens Valley was beneficial. The only thing worse than having the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power there would be its absence. Imagine this amazing landscape developed into a 60-mile-long Lancaster-Palmdale.

Larry Walker

Canoga Park

Cal State’s rising cost

Re “Cal State board hikes tuition 12%,” July 13

A public university should not charge undergraduates any tuition. Universities have suffered terrific mission creep since they were established. What is a university? It is a teacher and students in a portico, called in ancient Greece the stoa.

We have a new and effective stoa in “distance learning” technologies. All students can now enter a virtual classroom where a professor at any University of California campus can conduct his classes.

A distance learning stoa can reduce the cost of courses by a factor of 10, can multiply the number of courses offered at any campus by a factor of 10 and can bring students at all campuses into classrooms taught by a faculty member, increased by a factor of 10 — all on a tight budget. This is a no-brainer. Why don’t the California State University trustees employ distance learning and reduce tuition at all campuses?

Jean E. Rosenfeld

Pacific Palisades

Irresponsible borrowing and spending tactics today, we have been told, will result in payments that future generations must assume. Well, we’ve finally made it back to the future — witness the continual tuition increases for Cal State students.

Meanwhile, public employee retirees continue to reap huge paychecks for work they performed yesterday.

Here’s how California’s excessive endowment programs will eventually end: Due to escalating costs in education, the state won’t have enough schooled people to fill state jobs, at which time our current top-heavy entitlement obligations will eventually dry up. As will the state’s economy.

And as California goes, so goes the rest of the nation.

Dain Gingerelli

Mission Viejo

Re “CSU pay plan stirs furor,” July 9

Students at San Diego State University are outraged by the $400,000 salary for the new campus president, who oversees a school of more than 33,000 students and one with an

endowment of more than $100 million.

In contrast, the head football coach is paid $675,000 annually. Why don’t students ask him to take a salary cut? Why not drop the football program and use that money to pay for the classes?

Many believe that athletic teams generate donations and improve school spirit. Ultimately, the Cal State system is a state-funded educational institution, and athletes leaving school without a degree propagate the idea that student athletics are more for training professional athletes than school spirit.

If students want education and athletics, they have to pay. Otherwise, dropping the football program would likely improve the bottom line a lot more than hiring a less expensive administrator.

Jeffrey R. Knott

Fullerton

Why the dust-up? This new administrator is sending a great message to college students: You can get a good job in a bad economy by going to college — you just have to administer it.

Jamie Dimmel

Los Angeles

The last flight of the space shuttle

Re “Mission completed,” Opinion, July 10

George Alexander asks if the shuttle program was worth it. It was!

People are eventually going to live and work in space. Our planet is running out of resources. Mining the asteroids is a logical step, and what is invaluable about the program is the knowledge gained about being in space. People, equipment and procedure improvements are learned in actual practice.

Regarding his concerns about lost blood and treasure: Astronaut and ground-crew deaths are heartbreaking, but accidents and deaths happen in every industry. And “could have” disasters are not worth discussing other than as starting points for improvements at NASA.

Alexander complains that the shuttle was used as a truck. That’s what it was made for. It was a huge investment that kept thousands employed and stimulated the nation’s brain trust.

We’ve made a commitment to space. Don’t quit now.

Steve Marchillo

Claremont

Alexander points out that the space shuttle program cost $290 billion and 16 lives during its development and operational life cycle. He then cites the repair and refurbishment of the Hubble Space Telescope and the launch of the Magellan and Galileo planetary probes as tangible accomplishments of the space shuttle program.

However, a replacement Hubble Space Telescope could have been built and launched on an expendable launch vehicle for less than $3 billion. The Magellan and Galileo planetary probes could have been launched on expendable launch vehicles at a cost of $300 million apiece.

Alexander writes in his final paragraph, “I think it’s clear that there are valid roles for humans in space.” Nothing in his otherwise objective, excellent overview of the space shuttle program justifies this statement.

Al Barrett

Santa Monica

Bank’s error and what it says

Re “BofA’s handling of error is troubling,” Business, July 12

Bank of America accidentally assigned the same number to two accounts, and someone lost $30,000 as a result. And the Social Security Administration made up the difference. Moreover, BofA never apologized. But why should it? It’s too big to apologize.

I was a BofA customer for 35 years, until I took my money out and moved it to a responsible (and responsive) credit union, which I would urge any and all customers of megabanks like BofA to do.

Yes, these banks got our $700 billion to help them remain as big as they are, but it’s time to render them less big.

Russ Woody

Studio City

Lazarus’ piece about BofA’s failure to make good on $30,000 in Social Security payments that it posted to the wrong account is a sad footnote in the history of this California native, now owned by an out-of-state banking giant. Bank of America’s lack of action is unconscionable.

It is now, clearly, too big to feel.

Priscilla Brandt

Glendale

On the car tax

Re “A high price for a low tax,” Column, July 11

George Skelton’s column is seriously misleading. He asserts that the car tax rates stayed the same for 50 years, only going down during the Pete Wilson administration and then permanently reduced by Arnold Schwarzenegger.

What he fails to write is that the state changed its depreciation schedule (on which the tax is based) in 1991, which raised car taxes by billions of dollars. The lowering of the tax rate was a legitimate response to this backbreaking tax increase on California motorists.

The current rate is not some kind of deviation from the norm; it is a reasonable return to the more moderate tax rates previously levied on Californians before the Legislature of the early 1990s jacked up taxes to unsustainable levels.

Matthew Mickelson

Los Angeles

Rule of law

Re “How to treat a terror suspect,” Editorial, July 9

The key word is “suspect.” I am proud to live in a country that sets one of the highest standards in the world for criminal conviction. Presumption of innocence is a fundamental element of our justice system and the magnet that steers our moral compass.

What Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and his paranoid colleagues refuse to acknowledge is that Ahmed Abdulkadir Warsame has not been convicted of anything. If he is guilty, he will be found guilty and dealt with appropriately. If he is innocent, or if he can’t be proved guilty, then let him go.

We cannot afford to lower this standard. It is, to a large extent, what makes America great.

Bart Braverman

Los Angeles