When I picked up The Minnesota Daily this morning, I had to check the date to see if it was April 1 again because the front page headline, âÄúBaseball program sets sights on new stadium,âÄù could only be a joke, I thought. At a time when tuition is going up and faculty and staff are taking pay cuts, Joel Maturi thinks it right to continue adding more luxuries for the UniversityâÄôs losing sports programs. And why? Maturi says, âÄúWe are in desperate need of a field âĦ It is about impressing 17- and 18-year old kids,âÄù with a shiny new facility. Clearly, this is some new definition of âÄúdesperate.âÄù When I think of âÄúdesperate,âÄù I think of people, say, without food or shelter in Haiti (to take just one example.) With this new definition handy, perhaps we can say the players are in desperate need of real gold threads in their uniforms, or are desperate for pre-game beluga caviar and vintage Dom Pérignon. At a time when President Bob Bruininks says the University needs to focus on its best programs and its core mission, to ask for something as totally superfluous to the UniversityâÄôs mission as a sports stadium is totally outrageous and insulting to the University community, including the private donors who deserve to have their gifts make a meaningful, positive difference in the world. Wolfe Molitor University staff