Letters to the editor

Academic Senate polarizes campus

The Academic Senate’s choice to condemn U.S. action in
Iraq (“Faculty to take stance on U.S. war in Iraq,”
News, April 14) is in distasteful disregard of the
university’s responsibility to provide students with a safe
learning environment.

By comparing Iraq to Vietnam (a fallacious argument) and by
making sweeping condemnations of the United States on a tenuously
factual basis, the senate threatens to alienate students whose
views do not parallel those held by their professors.

A student’s relationship with his or her professor should
never be affected by political beliefs, yet this is the danger the
senate’s recent decision is posing. An academic climate in
which students fear taking certain professors’ classes due to
contrary political beliefs is not indicative of freedom, but rather
of tyranny.

According to its official Web site, the senate was created by
the UC Regents to “exercise direct control over academic
matters.”

Clearly, the senate has lost sight of its role, as its latest
move has nothing to do with academics, and everything to do with
polarizing this campus.

Howard I. Chernin Fourth-year, Spanish
linguistics

Don’t blame our troops

As a veteran of two wars and a current UCLA student, it
deeply saddens me to see USAC not adopt any type of
endorsement to support our troops. 

Students and teachers at UCLA debate the ills of
war from the comfort of their dorm rooms, classrooms and UCLA
offices, yet most have no idea what war is really
like. Regardless of what you may think or believe, it is
impossible to experience war through a novel, textbook,
magazine or television broadcast. But I have seen war up
close, and it is everything you could ever imagine and
worse. 

Being a former military member at UCLA is like having AIDS and
cancer all rolled into one ““ nobody wants to get near you and
you are pitied by all. I have worked harder to get into UCLA
than I have for anything else in my life. Why, then,
should I have these feelings of shame?

Regardless of your opinion on Iraq, do not blame our
troops. Please don’t take the anger you might have
toward our current political administration and direct it
toward our brave soldiers, sailors, airman and
Marines. 

How fortunate we are to live in a society with enough young
men and women willing to secure our freedom
with their lives. 

David Lowenthal Graduate student