Institutional Support
First, let me compliment your staff on the work
you all do on N.U. Magazine. You consistently produce an excellent magazine,
issue after issue. I enjoy reading it each time it arrives in the mail.
I particularly want to comment on the article entitled "A Dream Defended"
[May]. Meghan Irons [writer] and Bob Kramer [photographer] did an excellent
job! As an alumnus and founder of the institute, I found the article to
be memory-evoking, accurate, and positive.
I hope it will help to galvanize more support
for the institute and its current and future programs.
Wendell C. Bourne Jr., LA'71
Dorchester, Massachusetts
Math and Science Skirmishes
I enjoyed Alan Cromer's article, "The Math
and Science Wars" [May]. I agree with Professor Cromer that inquiry
experiments can frequently produce frustration and downright wrong perceptions
of scientific principles. They cannot be run day after day. And when they
are run, the professor/teacher must "coach the team" and redirect,
or at least do a summary at the end of the session.
There is a lot to be gained by trial-and-error
inquiry, however. The Wright brothers never finished high school. They
were excellent machinists and innovators. How many kids like them are in
our classes, bored by exercises they did in elementary school? The theory
of flight was nonexistent when the Wright brothers wanted to fly gliders
as well as improve bicycles. So they observed gliders and flew a few and
decided to fly remote-controlled gliders (no electronics were available
at the beginning of this century) to find a method to control flight. Eventually,
they built a wind tunnel and developed an improved airfoil. There was no
science, just their methodical innovation. Then they needed a lightweight
engine. They ended up building their own.
A child learns from building a small glider or
paper airplane and seeing it crash and once in a while seeing it fly ten
to twenty feet, landing smoothly. The teacher must inject himself or herself
to coach and to introduce the concepts of lift, drag, thrust, weight, and
airfoil shape and how they relate to angle of attack. Simple inquiry experiments
are valuable learning tools, but even the simplest demonstration frequently
involves complex forces. Aberrant results can occur. This is why teaching
science is always a challenge. Professor Cromer's comments concerning practice
are on target. A great article.
Timothy H. Marvin
Kure Beach, North Carolina
Murderous Mysteries
I charge the murder-mystery writers ["H.
U. Sky, Private Eye," May] of being unaware of the significance of
what they are writing about. They have no concept of the meaning of the
words they are using. And there are hundreds of thousands of murder-mystery
aficionados throughout this country who are certainly unaware of the reality
of what they are reading about. This attitude of inurement toward killing
has been carried over into real life. The reports of shootings in the newspapers
every day are written with the same words as the murder-mystery authors,
but the physical reality of those newspaper reports are not fiction. Just
as people do not realize the consequences of taking a life in the murder-mystery
they are reading, they do not realize the consequences of killing in real
life.
This is exemplified in the same issue of your
magazine. The article "H. U. Sky, Private Eye" and the article
"Campus Mourns Slain Football Player" [E Line] are intimately
related. Christopher Midgett was killed with a real gun similar to the
one that Robert Parker is holding in his hand in the photograph [page nineteen];
he was shot by someone who also held a gun in his hand and pulled a trigger
like the one that Robert Parker has his finger on. This attitude toward
killing pervades the thinking of the whole world. The opening passage in
the murder mystery article-"The innocent victims lay in piles, scattered
around the room with a carelessness that indicated the most ruthless indifference
to the heartache and struggle that had brought them there"-is applicable
to a description of the Holocaust. I have written a book entitled Flaunting
Some Challenges at the World that challenges the entire world's aspect
toward killing, for which I am seeking a publisher.
Albert Helzner, MEd'69
Marblehead, Massachusetts
Sports Star
I read with great interest Jack Grinold's article
on the first year of Northeastern's rowing ["Cinderella Squad,"
May]. It was a great article and it should be mandatory reading for every
freshman so that crew can continue a sense of tradition. Obviously, Northeastern
made the right choice in hiring Ernie Arlett; however, it must also be
said that it made the right choice in hiring a certain sports information
director who appreciated the historic significance of the crew's accomplishments
as they were happening. In the final analysis, the fact that we have the
opportunity to remember the achievements of that crew is entirely dependent
upon Jack's ability to observe and appreciate not only the achievements
but also the finer points of the sport, both here and abroad. His skill
in bringing all of those talents together with a flawless and polished
writing style has wonderfully memorialized the crew's accomplishments.
Jack's effort will help future Northeastern oarsmen appreciate the heritage
of the team and I trust it will also lead them to appreciate the importance
of his contribution to that effort.
Michael C. McLaughlin, LA'71
Boston
McLaughlin rowed crew from 1967 to 1970.
Damned Errors
It was a pleasure to be interviewed by my former
journalism professor Bill Kirtz for the May Talk of the Gown column, "Lies,
Damned Lies, and Résumés." In the spirit of not tooting
one's own horn, please note that my correct title is vice president and
executive editor of <jobfind.com>, an interactive division of the
Boston Herald. I am not the vice president and executive editor of the
Herald. No one is. That position does not exist. Also note that had I or
any of my classmates made a similar factual error on a journalism assignment
for the esteemed professor, the grade would have been an automatic F.
Mary Helen Gillespie, AS'84
Marshfield, Massachusetts
Protest
I am saddened by a recent letter to the editor
from William Hamilton, E'53 [May], and his assertion that students who
protest an American foreign policy, or any policy for that matter, should
be considered subversive and imprisoned for their outspoken beliefs. If
Mr. Hamilton had an opportunity to enroll in a history course while at
N.U., he may have learned that major changes in government are not accomplished
in the voting booth, as he would like us to believe. The most obvious instance
was our Revolutionary War. There have been changes at other critical times
in our country, as well as elsewhere, that did not require the vote! World
War II was fought to protect democracy from fascism, some say. The very
attitude that Hamilton espouses is fascism: "a political philosophy
that exalts a nation above the individual, in which a dictatorial leader
controls a severe economic and social regimentation and forcible suppression
of opposition." Should the students at the lunch counters have been
imprisoned for their protest? Should we have shot more at Kent State and
other campuses? I don't recall our civil rights movement a matter of the
ballot box! The students under Suharto and those in Tiananmen Square also
are relevant.
I do not want to appear didactic, but it is obvious
that more engineering students from Northeastern should study not only
the mathematics, physics, and other sciences that enable a missile, for
example, to get from liftoff to target but also the ethics of the consequences
of both impacts. An engineering degree may supply a basis for trade, but
it is no substitute for an education.
William H. Greer, LA'52, MEd'55
Milford, New York
Thank you for your excellent, informative article
in the March issue about the student demonstrations against the U.S. involvement
in the Vietnam War ("The Cauldron Bubbles, A University Emerges").
I am proud to have been opposed to the war when I was a member of the International
Relations Club and the Political Society at Northeastern from 1953 to 1957.
What a tragedy it was that so many American (and other) soldiers had to
fight and die in a war that was not to be won and was so unpopular. The
students led the forces that swayed public opinion in this country and
the world. Of course students have the right to protest and question the
nation's foreign policy and to vote their beliefs.
In response to William Hamilton's letter, he apparently
does not know what education means. Mr. Hamilton believes that "if
the students were justified" [to protest the nations' foreign policy
and demand closure of the ROTC program], then students in the 1940s would
have been justified to demand that we get out of World War II. He's right-anyone
would have been justified in doing so if that is what he believed. When
I was in college, we used picketing, demonstrations, and other nonviolent
means to oppose war and the testing and use of nuclear weapons. I'm happy
to have been a small part of those movements. Voting and the ballot box
are not the only democratic means to oppose wrongheaded actions and ideas.
Norlan Flower, LA'57
Burlington, Vermont
Dissension and Distraction
The article on Northeastern's era of protest ["The
Cauldron Bubbles, A University Emerges"] in your March issue was truly
enlightening. My dad graduated with the class of '71 so it was intriguing
for me to learn what he experienced, not only because I am also a graduate
of N.U. but because I was born in 1969. I heard some stories of his school
days but not to the extent that your article portrayed. He worked many
hours at various jobs while going to school full time. (My mother said
he was always falling asleep at the dinner table.) I have always admired
him for working through school while supporting a newborn and wife. I'm
sure he was already distracted enough without having the added discord
of the protests. Your article gave me a new appreciation for just how many
distractions there were. Thanks for the education, then and now.
Denise D. Montoya, AS'93
Ashland, Massachusetts
Home Stand
A letter titled "Housing Row," printed
in the May issue, opposed Northeastern's affordable housing proposal as
being related to a "failed" public housing effort and unrelated
to Northeastern's mission of education. Of about 3,300 public housing authorities
nationwide, fewer than 100 are "troubled," according to the U.S.
Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). This is not to say that
there are no failures but to suggest that success is the norm. Also, public
housing serves less than one-third of federally assisted tenants. It is
one of an array of federal, state, local, and private-sector efforts to
encourage affordable rental housing and home ownership. The effort is complex
(as is the problem) and does not lend itself to facile condemnations.
HUD recently prepared for Congress an updated
report on worst-case housing needs. Despite the economic boom of the '90s,
the number of households with "acute" housing needs has grown
significantly. These are households that have severely substandard housing
or that pay so much for housing that other basic needs may go unmet. These
are increasingly suburban households and families with at least one full-time
worker. I think it is entirely congruent with Northeastern's mission of
education to acknowledge that we all have a responsibility to grapple with
vexing social problems, even at the risk of occasional failure.
Warren J. Mroz, BA'86
Boston
Grad-itude
In 1991, when investigating opportunities to pursue
a Ph.D. degree, I was heartened by Northeastern's orientation toward working
students. Other universities in the area require that Ph.D. students enroll
full time and attend courses during the day. But like my dad-a 1948 graduate
of Northeastern's Springfield Evening Division-I needed to hold down a
full-time job while working toward my degree. The June 20 commencement
was a special event for my dad and me. We did not want the day to pass
without expressing our gratitude to Northeastern for its dedication to
the nontraditional student.
Christine A. Payne, PHD'98
Cambridge, Massachusetts
John M. Payne Sr., BA'48
Springfield, Massachusetts
Parsons Problem
The flood of cars and buses in and around Parsons
Field is a constant source of annoyance to abutters who can't park near
their own homes most days (and nights) of the year. This need not be so.
The university is less than two miles from the field. But as far as I know,
there are no bike racks at the field for students, alumni, or other spectators.
How come? I believe N.U. has some great environmental courses, but let's
practice what we preach. Help the ozone layer and walk, bike, or bus to
the games at Parsons Field.
Irene Vock Gillis
Brookline, Massachusetts
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