To the editor:

Kansas University’s fees and tuition increased 114 percent over the past 10 years. Inflation for the same period was 27 percent. Kansas’ state spending increased 36 percent from 1997 to 2002. Inflation for the same period was 18 percent.

Where is it all going? They are spending other people’s money as fast as they can. They are fixing roads that don’t need fixing and paying fat salaries to increasing numbers of people — football coaches and the like. KU was a nice school when my grandfather attended it, and my father didn’t complain about it, either. I had free student tickets to the football games in the early ’60s, and KU was a pretty nice place. There were no decent restaurants in Lawrence, though, for athletic directors and deans to go to on their expense accounts. And the capitol building in Topeka didn’t have a statue on top of it.

As noted in the Saturday Column of Oct. 25, KU officials are either insensitive, uncaring or unaware. Don’t give them the benefit of the doubt. Uncaring is what they are, because they know for certain that we, the public, won’t lift a finger to stop them. Get used to it.

Ben H. Barteldes,

Perry