I am absolutely flummoxed as to how the university drew the conclusion that a substantial minority of responses requesting Fox News be added to the "U-Tube" lineup translates into a mandate to replace a time-honored and trusted news source, The New York Times, with a cable news channel owned by Rupert Murdoch ("Fox News, ESPN 2 added to campus TV" SN 6/13).

When I took the Residence Halls Association survey, I was under the impression that it would merely be a reshuffling of the channels. Less popular channels would be removed in favor of highly requested ones.

If they had removed BET or A&E in favor of the two most requested channels, it would not be an issue. Instead, student opinions were ignored and a unilateral and highly controversial decision was made. I can't count how many times I've seen students reading the Times between classes or during meals in the cafe.

How convenient that this change was made and announced in the summer, with the vast majority of the on-campus population (and the RHA survey respondents) gone. It seems that rather than trying to provide us with better media sources, certain elements in the university are attempting to replace certain media outlets with others friendlier to their ideology.

Art Covert
computer science graduate student