Columbia students not taught thrift
The campus of Columbia University is seen Wednesday, Oct. 10, 2007, in New York, one day after a black professor discovered a hangman's noose on the the office door. Teachers College has not identified the professor, but students say she teaches a class on racial justice. (AP Photo/Diane Bondareff) Credit: ASSOCIATED PRESS/Diane Bondareff
I am appalled by the excuses given by two of the Columbia University students arrested in December for drug sales: They were doing it to pay for tuition, according to police. Have they never heard of state universities?
While there is much prestige associated with attending universities such as Columbia, state and city schools offer excellent educational opportunities at a much reduced tuition. I am a graduate of Queens College, both undergraduate and graduate degrees, and my son is a graduate of the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. Both of us were impressed by the quality of the education.
Maybe the best lesson these students' parents could have taught was to live within their means.
Judith Karish Rycar
Queens Village
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