Syeda Hasan’s June 26 article “FAFSA application made easier and less exhaustive” is right on. The fact that some people are not going to college because they cannot understand the form is a serious problem. But this issue just sheds light on a much larger issue: the complexity in reading The Daily Texan. I’ve noticed that some articles string together multiple compound sentences and use a vocabulary that is beyond the comprehension of some of our students. I think that by adding more pictures, and by ignoring hard topics like local politics, the number of readers would definitely increase.
Another complaint is that the Friday crossword is too hard. When students try to solve it, they are often left with a feeling of failure. If instead there were a second Word Search, that would certainly increase the morale of the student body.
To coincide with the dumbing down of the FAFSA, maybe President Obama should focus his efforts on making college newspapers more readable. That way, the students who would not have attended due to a hard FAFSA, will have a college newspaper that they can read.
