Roommate recalls slain victim
Today, I am contacting you about an idea to honor a young woman who embodied the best and brightest of our generation.  Murray was smart, funny and beautiful and possessed a giving spirit.  A high school graduate at the age of 16, she served Stewpot, where Jackson’s hungry and homeless are fed, volunteered with Habitat for Humanity and raised money to aid victims of child abuse. 
Murray Pace had been given a lot in life — a loving family, scores of friends, a brilliant mind married to an infectious sense of humor — but, she also gave a lot back to a world that welcomed her only 22 short years ago.  At Millsaps College, where we both attended, Murray was both an officer in her sorority and the captain of the women’s collegiate soccer team. Athletic and adventurous, she’d studied in London, Paris, Munich and Prague.
On May 24, she received her master’s degree in business administration from Louisiana State University. A much-prized and hard-won job with an international consulting firm was waiting for her in Atlanta.  Her parents — father, Casey Pace, and Murray’s mother, Ann Pace, were worried about leaving their girl alone in such a big city. As it turns out, Baton Rouge harbored a much more immediate evil.
Pace’s magnetic personality attracted people. Until the final moments of her life, everyone Murray ever met wanted to be her friend. Her love of life brought people together — in service, in sport, in sisterhood. When Murray’s older sister married a few years ago, Mrs. Ann had written a touching wedding tribute. Impressed by her mother’s writing talents, Murray made her promise to compose a similar message for her big day. At her funeral, Mrs. Ann bravely kept her word.
She reminded us of Murray’s feisty spirit, the way she’d once knotted her six-year-old fist to knock a bully down a hill. The kid made the mistake of harassing her older brother. From beginning to end, Murray Pace fought for life. In an act of profound emotional courage, Mrs. Ann shared with us her hunger to hear her child’s voice just one more time. She also shared how comforted she’d been to discover Murray’s message on an answering machine, how she’d struggled to compose the brief speech she thought would some day be delivered to a bride and how she’d suddenly been struck with an idea that could be Murray’s lasting message to the world.
Do three things in her memory, Mrs. Ann urged: commit one completely anonymous act of kindness — do the things you are most afraid of, embracing courage emotionally, as well as physically; be brave, fight for your life like Murray; and eventually, when tears no longer trace your cheeks, get up one morning with the full realization of how lucky we all are to have just one more day. That’s Murray’s message. And this is my way of passing it along.
Grace Crouch-Rumble
Graduate Student — Architecture
Student responds to new grading system
In response to “Making the Grade” — first of all, I think it’s a good idea. True, it may make easier teachers a bit more concise in their grading policies, thereby reducing the number of As per semester; however, it most definitely will scrutinize those teachers (and teacher’s assistants) who give Fs so easily or perhaps those who refuse to award anyone a deserved A. In other words, it will help make a more balanced and unbiased grading environment, and there is no real reason not to post the distributions, if the postings are handled properly and factually.
Associate Vice Chancellor Kuhn’s reason why the administration would not post the findings is not very strong — how often does a class only have three students, let alone only 20? (Another example of LSU’s administrative lackluster attention to student needs and woes). UGA already has done this, and it seems to have worked there. I’m certain it would here as well. Ashley Himel, for example, seems to be the typical type of student whom such a posting would benefit, and her utilizing such a posting to her benefit would be indicative of what I think the average student at LSU would do as well.
If the administration wants to do something proactive about the grades and grading policies at LSU, perhaps they should do away with TOPS. TOPS has created an environment with an easy entrance policy, causing teachers sometimes to unfairly skew their grading policies to accommodate the high numbers of students “not making the grade.” Do away with such a high admittance rate, such as LSU’s Law School has, and the teachers can give more justifiably “good” grades. Thank you.
Jeremy Pearce Cinman
Freshman — General Studies
Stelly plan steals from the ‘rich’
Again, the voters of Louisiana have voted to drive the middle class out of the state and subject we who love our home to abject poverty. Stelly’s scheme is no tax break, but a tax hike on the type of people who care about their communities, participate in PTAs and local sports and already pay way too much. Once again, an either ignorant or masochistically liberal student body threw its support behind this socialistic extortion of the professional class.
First, Stelly describes any single person making over 35K as a “rich” person. The vast majority of professionals, meaning people who have a college degree, have salaries that start above, or quickly rise above, the 35K mark. All technical majors, pre med, pre-law and government employees, whose starting salaries average or quickly reach about 40K, have voted a tax hike on themselves. When you get a real job, and the government steals 35-40 percent of your income, remember your vaunted liberalism from college, and realize you brought this upon yourself.
TOPS drains millions to keep college students in the state. When the middle-class flee this state and the lazy, shiftless welfare class are all that’s left in this filthy pit, make sure to place that blame squarely where it belongs — on the students of LSU and other short-sighted liberals.
Lastly, our long-lost sales tax is the most fair and equitable of all taxes. Sales tax forces everyone to pay his share, including the “poor.” Sales tax encourages savings, as they are untaxable. However, Louisiana has chosen to punish saving, thriftiness and honesty. It punishes the very people who took the time and trouble to get a degree, work for a living, raise a proper family and prop up the pillars of our society.
Benjamin Mabry
Sophomore — Political Science