Teaching the Teachers
Donald Kennedy, deploring low-quality undergraduate teaching, attacks an old problem, at least in the sciences ("The Lost Art of Teaching," January/February). I have been a professor of meteorology at the University of Oklahoma for 14 years and was hired on research credentials and the presumed ability to attract graduate students. I was successful at that -- but I don't think a whole lot rubbed off on the undergrads I taught.
Not every PhD knows, or quickly learns, how to handle an undergrad class. Coming directly out of school or from a research or industrial position, he or she should take a course in undergraduate teaching. Nearly every department has a few real teaching pros. They should be advising or mentoring their colleagues with lesser experience.
Doug Lilly, '50
Norman, Oklahoma
East Palo Alto's Problems
I read the upbeat article on East Palo Alto with interest ("Reversal of Misfortune," January/February), but found it lacking in that it did not deal with the fundamental issues confronting us. East Palo Alto has had trouble and has been troublesome for at least 40 years, despite special attention from local, state and federal authorities and the do-good efforts of various groups such as Stanford law and medical school students. The city is surrounded by job opportunities and social and economic achievement, but its citizens have not assimilated the values that this represents.
The changes that you report (it is now safe to walk the streets in daylight hours) and the lack of change (pervasive poverty and unemployment) hardly give cause for celebration.
Daniel Devor, '51, MA '56
Oakhurst, California
A Wife's Courage
The article by Mary Catherine Fish about the tragic death of her husband ("This is Not Happening," January/February) was beautifully written and poignant. It is amazing that Fish has reached the point where she can talk about the painful death of her beloved husband with an all-pervasive inner peace. Her story is both powerful and hopeful, and I wish to applaud her for her courage.
Hanish Dayal
High school student
Nashville, Tennessee
Beware of Industry Support
Your article concerning the University's renewed pursuit of industrial funding ("The Matchmakers," Stanford Today, January/February) presents an overoptimistic picture and glosses over the worrisome aspects of academia-industry collaborations.
No matter how altruistic the motives, we must avoid fooling ourselves into thinking that industrial initiatives will fill gaps in research budgets. Industry's track record for supporting university research has been poor. Moreover, industry support leads to secrecy, which undermines the fundamental norm of free exchange of information on which science is based.
For years, Stanford has been content to leave relationships with industry to the discretion of individual faculty members, while using patent and conflict-of-interest guidelines to ensure that agreements are consistent with the values of the University. There is a real danger, I think, when you displace the faculty by having an administrative umbrella organization aggressively broker deals with industry. Academic missions, faculty obligations and commercialization get blurred.
Spyros Andreopoulos
Director emeritus, office of communications,
Stanford University Medical Center
Doubting Murphy
Jackie Krentzman's story ("In Murphy's Kingdom," January/February) is an unabashedly adoring celebration of a New Age institute and movement co-founded by a '60s druggie credited in the article with having eight acid trips. The author seems to focus on the well-known mind-expanding benefits of co-ed hot-tub nudity. On the serious side, she loyally expresses the oft-repeated but erroneous maxim of the New Age: "The highest form of religion taps into the fundamental spiritual tenets that underlie all religions." On the contrary, Christianity's spiritual tenets are unique, and the types of religions incorporated into the New Age movement recoil at Christianity's claims.
Let Murphy and Krentzman include me with the "naysayers and doubters." I'd rather take my chances with them than be counted among the likes of such "luminaries" as Timothy Leary, Alan Watts and B.F. Skinner.
Robert Griffin, '63, MS '64
Loomis, California
Race and Gender
I am both perplexed and outraged by Professor Paul Sniderman's discussion of affirmative action programs in terms of race and ethnicity ("What Whites Think," January/February). Racial and ethnic issues are a smoke screen to hide the real target of the attacks on affirmative action, namely, women.
Women have been the greatest beneficiaries of affirmative action and have the most to lose if it is discontinued. I well remember, when I was applying for jobs in 1951, being told by female receptionists, "We don't hire women engineers."
Ruth V. Gordon, '48, MS '49
San Francisco, California
Professor Sniderman may well be right that affirmative action is on its way out, but isn't it a bit cavalier to dismiss the difference between abolishing quotas and adopting the self-censorship that comes with a doctrine of color-blindness? It simply is not convincing to deny this problem by claiming people do not get, or care about, the distinction. If nothing else, the affirmative action vote in California suggests a far more divided citizenry than the opinions culled by Sniderman and his colleague.
Carl Gutierrez-Jones, '82
Santa Barbara, California
Football Finances
A system that makes balancing the athletic budget contingent on a "good" year in football is simply a lottery with very poor odds ("The Business of Sports," Stanford Today, January/February). Athletics is a classic "zero-sum" game; for every winning team, there must be a losing team. Most fans define a successful year in football as being a winning season, so about 50 percent of the teams are going to have "unsuccessful'' seasons -- and therefore face substantial financial losses. Some schools (such as where I teach) are unfortunate enough to be located far from metropolitan areas; even a winning record by the football team is insufficient to stop the flow of red ink.
Obviously, Stanford is not in a position to achieve significant reforms of the system without cooperation from other institutions. But because of its prestige, it could probably be more influential than many other schools if it were to try.
Costs could be cut in a number of ways. Would the U.S. education system collapse if the number of football scholarships were cut in half? Couldn't the number of coaches be cut? Should they be paid more than college presidents?
If Stanford is not willing to take a stand and reduce the cost and intrusion of sports on academic life, we can probably look forward to a new University motto. "The wind of freedom no longer blows, because it has been sold to Nike." Year to year, it may be necessary to insert Pizza Hut or Wal-Mart, depending on who has purchased rights to the Stanford name.
S. M. Grimes, '63
Athens, Ohio
Comments like "a little Nike swoosh on a jersey or shorts seems a small price to pay for financial security" indicate to me that someone is grossly undervaluing the image of the University. I know I was not the only alumnus completely disgusted by the swoosh during the Big Game. The swoosh was embarrassing though not disastrous. But does it indicate a systemic lack of judgment in Stanford's pursuit of corporate money? The sterling reputation that Stanford has developed over the last several decades can be tarnished very quickly by some bad decisions.
Meri McCoy-Thompson, '85
Pleasanton, California
The athletic department funds no fewer than 85 full scholarships for football players. The excuse given for this excess is that revenues from attendance, television and bowl games fund not only the football program, but also 33 other sports, including an additional 260 full-ride scholarships for athletes.
My pride in my Stanford degrees would be substantially increased by the news that two or three hundred additional scholarships were awarded to promising and disadvantaged high school seniors. Financing a farm club for professional football leagues is not the function of a university.
Jerome F. Downs, '47, JD '49
San Francisco, California
Why Seminars Succeed
Your First Impressions column ("Student Voices," January/February) highlighted the return of freshman (and new sophomore) seminars and the apparent eagerness of undergraduates to engage faculty in these small-group settings. The seminars will be a major success, as they were in the late '70s. I was awed to sit at the feet of Professor Virgil Whitaker in his home, where Shakespeare was more a passion than a subject. Similarly, my undying interest in molecular genetics was nurtured by a simple summer job in the laboratory of genetics Professor Leonard Herzenberg, who eventually became my doctoral adviser.
The upshot for me is twofold: Small forums always instill wonder and enthusiasm; and student initiative in seeking out professors, at Stanford and anywhere else, is nearly always rewarded. Remember, we professors all started out as wide-eyed kids.
Jeff Dangl, '80, MS '81, PhD, '86
Chapel Hill, North Carolina
One Way to Fight AIDS
The piece in the January/February issue of Stanford Today about a new test for HIV was welcome news for AIDS sufferers and all of us who suffer with them. Your headline, however, was misleading. "Fighting AIDS the Right Way," like fighting lung cancer, is primarily a matter of refraining from the unhealthy behaviors that foster the disease.
Elizabeth Erickson
Sunnyvale, California
A Woman's Option
After reading Leslie Gordon's student essay ("From Briefcase to Backpack," January/February), I am both happy and sad for her. I am happy that she no longer has to compete in the difficult corporate climate of the day, but I am struck by the question of how many other intelligent and well-educated female professionals choose to abandon that which they have worked so hard to achieve.
The feminist movement of the 1970s has allowed women to prove that they can compete with, and excel beyond, the achievements of men. Half of most medical and law school classes have been women for the past two decades. Personally, I know far too many women who have, like Gordon, left their chosen field. Most men do not seem to have this luxury.
Creed K. Mamikunian, '81
Anchorage, Alaska
The Whole Truth
My wife and I thoroughly enjoyed "Din and Dinner" (November/December 1997). Not that it bears even the remotest resemblance to our household -- after all, our daughter is 5, not 6; and her imaginary friend is named Olive. . . .
John Hadley, '76
Somerville, New Jersey
Poverty and Values Linked
One can only hope that the publication of Stewart Burns's essay (" Race," Stanford Today, January/February) does not herald the magazine's legitimization of knee-jerk hyperbole and hysterical dysphemism as substitutes for debate.
In referring to the murder of Dr. King as "the crucifixion of this modern Christ figure," Burns insults the millions who consider the death of Jesus to have saved them from sin and vouchsafed eternal life.
In bouncing around from philosophy to philosophy, Burns fails to notice the link between poverty and the disregard for such old-fashioned Western values as self-worth, hope and vision, serving and earning and empowerment.
David Spelman
Oakland, California
Lake Lag Boyfriend
In reference to the delightful exchange of letters between President Gerhard Casper and Georgiana (Howe) Coughlan and her mother ("Dear Mr. President," Stanford Today, November/December, 1997): As the young Catholic involved in the colorful episode on the shore of Lake Lag, I feel I owe my dear friend Georgiana an apology -- one should never disappoint a Stanford woman unnecessarily, but I simply didn't understand. The young people of today (or yesterday, for that matter) will scarcely comprehend or believe that, in the late '50s and early '60s, virginity was epidemic among Stanford women. They were all "saving themselves for their husbands," whatever that was about. We fantasized, but scarcely dared hope for consummation.
William Edinger, '63
Catonsville, Maryland
Don't Forget the Hunger Strike
In the article "Casper Turns Five" in the November/December issue of Stanford Today, I came across a statement that I find to be far from a minor editorial oversight. In your timeline, you state that in 1994, a call by Asian-American students for more ethnic studies prompted the University to establish the program in comparative studies in race and ethnicity.
Although Asian-American students have advocated for Asian-American studies for years, the omission of the hunger strike held by Chicano students in May 1994 in the main Quad before President Gerhard Casper was significant. It was a key catalyst in finally establishing the program.
This convenient "revision" of history makes your reporting quite questionable.
Maria A. Fernandez, '97
Cambridge, Massachusetts
Editor's Note: It's our standard practice to edit letters for space considerations. In that process, we make sure to preserve the substance of the writer's views, as we believe we did in Professor Perloff's case. Her original letter ran 600 words; the published version was 322 words -- still more than twice the length of the average letter in this space. To read her original letter and the edited version, click here.
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