Letter to the Editor
Congressman Alexander and ULM
Issue date: 4/27/09 Section: Perspectives
With giant budget cuts being expected for The University of Louisiana at Monroe, it is good to know that Congressman Rodney Alexander and ULM are looking out for the best interests of the students. Are they working to get federal tax dollars to help avoid cutting needed programs at the school? Not exactly. Perhaps they will send tax dollars our way so that we can avoid the all but certain tuition hikes? Nope. Instead our beloved Congressman is earmarking money to ULM for the purchase of a mobile dental unit.
A mobile dental unit is basically a glorified Winnebago that is outfitted with dental instruments and supplies. Right now many of you may be asking yourself why money is being spent on a mobile dental unit at a time when we aren't sure if we will even have enough money to keep all of our professors on staff. I too asked myself that question. My visceral reaction was that this is an incredible waste of federal tax dollars and looking at the numbers did not ease my concern.
The Congressman earmarked $476,000 for the purchase of the dental unit in the 2009 spending bill, which is indeed enough money to purchase such a thing. In fact, in less than an hour's time I was able to locate a mobile dental unit for sale right here in Monroe, LA, for $190,000. That leaves a remainder of $286,000 to purchase the supplies and instruments needed to stock the unit.
Here is where things get interesting. If you go to Congressman Alexander's website and click on 2010 appropriations, you will see that Congressman Alexander is requesting an additional $960,000 for, once again, a mobile dental unit. Whether the money will be spent to purchase an additional mobile dental unit or rather just to outfit the other one with 24k gold trim is unclear. What we do know is that the Dental Hygiene program will have a total of $1.4 million to spend, while we students experience an increase in tuition.
I felt, like I'm sure many of you do, that the $1.4 million that will be spent on this project would have been better spent paying our professors or staving off tuition hikes until Louisiana's economy is back on it's feet, but after careful deliberation I have concluded that there will be several uses for our newly acquired mobile dental unit. Probably the most obvious benefit of having the mobile dental unit right here at the school is that the very thought of federal tax dollars being spent on such a thing promotes a collective gnashing of teeth. And when your bicuspids have been worn down to a nub, the dental unit will be right here on campus to outfit you with a new set of dentures.
A mobile dental unit is basically a glorified Winnebago that is outfitted with dental instruments and supplies. Right now many of you may be asking yourself why money is being spent on a mobile dental unit at a time when we aren't sure if we will even have enough money to keep all of our professors on staff. I too asked myself that question. My visceral reaction was that this is an incredible waste of federal tax dollars and looking at the numbers did not ease my concern.
The Congressman earmarked $476,000 for the purchase of the dental unit in the 2009 spending bill, which is indeed enough money to purchase such a thing. In fact, in less than an hour's time I was able to locate a mobile dental unit for sale right here in Monroe, LA, for $190,000. That leaves a remainder of $286,000 to purchase the supplies and instruments needed to stock the unit.
Here is where things get interesting. If you go to Congressman Alexander's website and click on 2010 appropriations, you will see that Congressman Alexander is requesting an additional $960,000 for, once again, a mobile dental unit. Whether the money will be spent to purchase an additional mobile dental unit or rather just to outfit the other one with 24k gold trim is unclear. What we do know is that the Dental Hygiene program will have a total of $1.4 million to spend, while we students experience an increase in tuition.
I felt, like I'm sure many of you do, that the $1.4 million that will be spent on this project would have been better spent paying our professors or staving off tuition hikes until Louisiana's economy is back on it's feet, but after careful deliberation I have concluded that there will be several uses for our newly acquired mobile dental unit. Probably the most obvious benefit of having the mobile dental unit right here at the school is that the very thought of federal tax dollars being spent on such a thing promotes a collective gnashing of teeth. And when your bicuspids have been worn down to a nub, the dental unit will be right here on campus to outfit you with a new set of dentures.
Viewing Comments 1 - 3 of 3
gigi gafford
posted 4/30/09 @ 6:26 PM CST
This is very informative to me, I didn't know about this until this article was written in the ULM paper.
Yes this money should go towards keeping the professors
there at the university and towards the students tuition. (Continued…)
Anonymous
posted 7/21/09 @ 12:23 AM CST
x
Anonymous
posted 7/21/09 @ 12:26 AM CST
.
Post a Comment