Editor:

This letter is in response to the recent argument the Latter-day Saints Student Association presented regarding its funding from the Associated Students of the University of Utah.

LDSSA asserts, because of its proclaimed 15,000 student membership, that it deserves a larger portion of ASUU’s funds over smaller, minority groups. This argument can be justified only under one condition: that all, if not most, of its members are actively participating in the student group. Therefore, if LDSSA wants to be taken seriously, it must present to ASUU (and to all students, for that matter) an accurate number of active members. After all, LDSSA accounts for its membership solely on those who are in the LDS religion-active or inactive. It is not unreasonable to assume a good portion of LDS students are apathetic to the LDS religion (any religion has its inactive members) and thus do not even know of the existence of LDSSA, much less care about it.

Perhaps I am making an asinine assumption, but until LDSSA comes up with real numbers, it is definitely not unwarranted. Nevertheless, the practice of including inactive members of the LDS religion as members of LDSSA is an abuse of statistics-it is boosting its numbers to make itself appear more deserving of additional funds.

Now, to address specific issues in Nick Macey’s March 12 column (“ASUU deserves larger slice of funding pie”). He claims that “ASUU is afraid of. . . assisting [LDSSA] with events benefitting the entire campus.” This statement is as audacious as it is false. I believe I can speak for all non LDS students when I say that the LDSSA has not done even one thing for us here on campus. That’s right, not one.

So absent is it from my campus life that I wasn’t even aware such an organization existed before it started demanding more funds. For certain, LDSSA does not affect the campus lives of many students, especially those who are non-LDS.

Actually, I would like to retract my previous point. LDSSA has, in fact, had an effect on my campus life. That is, its very existence has raised student fees.

Funny how a religion can take money away even from nonmembers, isn’t it?

Jason Ho

Sophomore, Physics