I have been hearing about the Catt Hall debate for most of my college career, and now a student is going to put his life in danger to get his point across.

I admire Mr. Nosworthy’s passion, but I am not going to go that far to get my point across. I urge the September 29th Movement to give up the fight to change the name of Catt Hall.

Catt Hall’s name will never be changed.

Why? MONEY.

Here’s some background:

If my memory serves me correctly, Old Botany was scheduled for demolition, but many people thought such a beautiful and historical building should remain standing and be used again.

But restoring that structure to a functional building was quite a bit more expensive than tearing it down and building a new one. So the faculty at ISU had to find a way to raise the funds to save the building. They did.

They decided to name the building after a woman who was essential to giving women the right to vote in this country. Better yet, she was an alumna of the college.

Her racist attitude was not widely know about then. They would sell over-priced bricks in the walkway, so women could have their names in stone for all of ISU to see, right next to the name of such an important woman. It worked.

These are facts.

If the name of Catt Hall were changed, most of the people who donated money to have their name beside hers would probably be angered.

The last thing the university wants to do is anger hundreds of people who donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to ISU.

They would probably never donate again. ISU stands to lose to much money, to change the name of a building to make a couple of hundred students happy.

I urge you to surrender this one battle, but not the fights for equality about which you are so passionate.

I challenge you to take the time you have been using to change the name of Catt Hall, and use it to hang out with a kid whose parents don’t have time for him (or who doesn’t have parents at all). I urge you to use that time to help a freshman adjust to college life.

Maybe put in a few more hours at your part-time job, and use the income to buy a hungry family dinner once a week.

Help Habitat for Humanity. Work in a homeless shelter.

Go after the other eight requests that Allan is starving for.

I encourage these things because they help PEOPLE.

Buildings don’t matter. Names don’t matter.

PEOPLE MATTER.

And, sadly, money matters.

Peace to all people.

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Michael J. Klocke

Junior

Agricultural studies