This is in response to the article "UPUA meeting draws conflict" (Dec. 4).

At a UPUA meeting, Vice President Mitch Belding said, "It sends a mixed message to the student body during our meetings to say 'Here's the opinion,' and 'Now, here's the dissenting opinion.'"

Did everyone catch that? The guy we all elected (and by all I mean 758 of us) to be the vice president of our student advocacy group has summed it up. Debate at UPUA meetings isn't a good thing! It sends a mixed message. And what's that mixed message? Probably something like "Some of our members don't always have the
same opinion on everything. Sometimes they even - gasp - have the tenacity, the temerity to disagree with Chamberlin and Belding!"

Concealing debate in committee meetings will be an excellent way to avoid that mixed message, and maybe even avoid the accountability that comes with those pesky town hall meetings.

That sure was a close call, and I wish Belding and friends all the best in their attempt to silence the student voice by homogenizing it.