Letters to the editor

To the Daily:

I have heard over the past several years that the University of Michigan football coaches want to teach their players to have character. The silent adjective here must be “bad” not “good” character.

In searching for a new football coach to replace Lloyd Carr, the University of Michigan contacted not one, but two coaches who were scheduled to prepare their teams for major Bowl Championship Series bowl games: Les Miles and Rich Rodriguez. In the latter case, Michigan was successful in luring Rodriguez away from West Virginia University two weeks prior to the West Virginia’s bowl game against Oklahoma.

It may not be against the rules for a university to recruit a coach in this manner, but it certainly shows a lack of honor.

Maggi Reiss

Columbus, Ohio

Physical therapy at UHS needs work

To the Daily:

The goal of a physical therapy facility is to rehabilitate a patient as quickly and efficiently as possible. But the physical therapy program at University Health Service is inefficient, slow and timid. Not only is there not enough gym space available to meet patients’ needs, there is barely enough room for more than two people to stretch out or do agility exercises.

Before I came to the University, I was enrolled in a physical therapy facility with a rigorous two-and-a-half hour workout program that helped me immensely each week. Once I enrolled in the University’s physical therapy department, though, my workout schedule was reduced to one half-hour session and I was forced to continue therapy by myself at the gym. Because I had gone through physical therapy for the same injury before, I knew what I had to do to make a full recovery. But what about other students with injuries who don’t know how to rehabilitate themselves?

Although the staff is very likeable and courteous, it needs to spend more time with its patients. I only saw my physical therapist once every two weeks and spent most of my sessions with an assistant, who didn’t have the same knowledge as a physical therapist. Patients should see their therapists with every visit to properly facilitate a rehabilitation schedule that meets patients’ specific needs.

Just because students aren’t being charged for this University service, it doesn’t have to be second rate.

Connie Huang
LSA freshman

Carr’s victory worthy of Buckeye praise

To the Daily:

I would like to congratulate Michigan for its fantastic victory over Florida in the Capital One Citrus Bowl on Tuesday. It was touching to see head coach Lloyd Carr go out a winner. He deserved it. I believe that Big Ten fans should always pull for a Big Ten team.

Even though I am a lifetime Buckeye, I was a Michigan fan on New Year’s Day.

Michael D’Amore
The letter writer is an Ohio State University alum.

Top 25 albums were hardly winners

To the Daily:

I may not be a music expert, but I disagree with some of the albums that were considered the best of 2007 (Listen to the best music of 2007, 1/3/2008). The article argued that 2007 was “a year littered with best albums.” I believe it was just the opposite. Few of the best current artists, like Death Cab for Cutie or Sufjan Stevens, released albums this past year. The bands that did make up the list were rap artists and elitist indie garbage bands that no mainstream music listener has ever heard of. Not many music listeners can relate to the list. If you asked 100 University students, I would guess that few have listened to many of those 25 albums.

The article also left off several of what I thought were the best albums of the year, like Iron and Wine’s The Shepherd’s Dog, Elliott Smith’s New Moon and Josh Ritter’s The Historical Conquests of Josh Ritter. Enough with the critics’ obsession with rap and non-melodic indie music: This list may be able to brainwash other readers, but it couldn’t convince me that Animal Collective, Lil’ Wayne or T.I. recorded three of the top 50 albums in 2007, let alone the top 25.

Steven Gornstein
LSA junior