Letters to the editor

Reagan’s honor is indeed undeserved

Jed Levine’s piece regarding the naming of the new
hospital is absolutely correct (“Give credit to those who
truly deserve it,” Oct. 31).

I was still attending UCLA when the university announced that
the new UCLA Medical Center was going to be named after Ronald
Reagan. I was dumbfounded.

Ronald Reagan and his family did not even donate the money to
the hospital.

Instead, the $150 million donation was given by a group of
private citizens led by Jerry Perenchio, the billionaire majority
owner of the Spanish-language channel Univision.

When I attended UCLA, many of the buildings on campus were named
after university leaders and professors. This is not true
anymore.

The UCLA Medical Center will not benefit from being named after
Reagan, a man whose record is anything but friendly towards medical
research and academic freedom.

Rob Howard UCLA Alumnus

Fraternities were misrepresented

I was troubled by the portrayal of fraternity life in
Wednesday’s Daily Bruin (News, “Big parties can cost a
pretty penny,” Nov. 1).

Though the author’s intentions were to highlight the
financial stake in parties hosted by UCLA fraternities, the final
product seemed to concentrate more on highlighting the opportunity
cost of such social programming.

While fraternities do spend considerable sums of money on house
parties, their philanthropic contribution cannot be accurately
weighed by what is donated from their largest quarterly event.

For instance, Sigma Alpha Epsilon participates in and hosts many
more philanthropic events than Elimidance, the only event
referenced in the article.

The individual members of fraternities actively participate in
and contribute to various philanthropic ventures on campus and in
the community at large.

It’s a shame to label members of fraternities as social
planners who also happen to do philanthropy work.

In reality, much more of our time, effort and money goes into
various programs designed to enhance our members’ collegiate
experience and contribute to the UCLA community.

Jeff Travis Third-year, political science Chairman,
Sigma Alpha Epsilon Elimidance Director of Communications, UCLA
Interfraternity Council