Letter: Sparing building best way to honor Frazier

Thursday, Nov. 29, 2007 | 7:04 a.m.

Regarding the editorial "Honoring Maude Frazier" in Monday's Las Vegas Sun:

Though I tend to agree on many aspects of what the editorial said regarding the honoring of Maude Frazier, I do not agree that the best way to honor her is by tearing down the very monument that was built in her name.

UNLV has had an appalling record of honoring its past. When UNLV embarked on building its new library it failed to rename it after James Dickinson, the first UNLV faculty member. The new library should have been called the Lied-Dickinson Library. Furthermore, when the new student union opened, the university administration dropped the name Donald Moyer. Donald Moyer was chancellor of the Board of Regents and UNLV's first president.

How can we as alumni of UNLV and the public trust that Maude Frazier will be honored faithfully when the university has failed to honor others in its past? The best way to honor Maude Frazier is to make her building the keystone and gateway that will bring Midtown together. Fifty years from now the students of UNLV and the community will be thankful for what we did.

Brian Paco Alvarez, Las Vegas