Letters to the Editor

Grade deflation work was done mainly 'behind the scenes'

Regarding 'USG solicits grading complaints' (Wednesday, Feb. 14, 2007):

From working toward eating club financial aid to working on technological issues, the vast majority of the work of the USG goes on behind the scenes. A total of five longer letters were sent out over the course of my one year as president — four of which were on grade deflation. If rather than continually focusing on the length of those letters you focused on their contents, you would see that the goal of our work last semester was to build a base of information (in the form of the survey, on academic ones and twos, and so on) and increase discussion on the policy that could form a foundation for eventual change in the policy and immediate change in its implementation.

The majority of the time spent last semester was spent working on the policy's implementation, and the work being done this semester represents a continuation of that work rather than a "shift" in direction on the policy. In meetings last semester we began to highlight the contradiction between the "expectation" that a certain percentage of students in each departments receive As and the idea that all students who professor's believe deserve As should receive A's, and we pushed toward the latter conception. Rob is continuing to advocate the idea that professors should give A's and A-minusess to all students who they believe are deserving of them, and to present such work on the policy as a "shift" is inaccurate and oversimplifies a complex issue. Alex Lenahan '07 Former USG President

Message behind Pride posters is not easily understood

Regarding 'Letters to the Editor' (Tuesday, Feb. 20, 2007):

While our backgrounds surely differ, I tend to agree with David Schaengold's feelings about the Pride posters. The idea behind them is innocent enough, and the reflexive property is fine by me, but I have trouble seeing what the posters accomplish.

They clearly preach to the gay-friendly choir and further bother students who don't approve of homosexuality. But they are presumably not designed to bother anyone, so they must be either empty encouragement or a message to students who are still undecided.

I have trouble imagining, however, what that message might be. The posters have relatively little content, and so they can't be meant to convince anyone to support gay rights. Rather, the charged photography is just as likely to alienate students who don't consider sexuality to be a public topic, reinforcing the misguided notion that gay equals exhibitionist. Many students (both within and without the LGBT community) believe sex is a profoundly personal issue — despite Asso's letter, this has nothing to do with shame.

As for the quotation from Franklin, in addition to being the most overused quotation in contemporary America, it's totally irrelevant here. Questioning a poster campaign equals giving up liberty? In the immortal words of my generation — WTF? Dave Harris '07

Media ignores U.S. involvement in Hussein's use of weapons

Regarding 'Reevaluating the execution of Hussein' (Wednesday, Feb. 21, 2007):

I offer the following comments in light of the points raised in the column. It was surely the will of the Bush administration to have Hussein executed. This would remove him permanently from the scene and let the United States then concentrate on the "bringing of freedom to the Iraqis" (as our freedoms in the United States are systematically strangled). It is interesting that the case for which he was tried did not seem to involve the use of chemical weapons. Maybe I missed something, but if he were also tried for gassing the Kurds, would not the possible implication of the United States as a supplier of technology to him be brought into the picture? Imagine his former friend, Donald Rumsfeld '54, being called to testify as to what the United States may have contributed to his "Weapons of mass destruction." This point has been totally ignored by the compliant media who fail time and again to question the Bush administration about its lead up to the war and our past involvements with Saddam. Bob Givey '58