Letters
LETTERS Grant me this I read with interest David Hamilton's article on scientific misconduct ["White Coats, Black Deeds," April]. However, Mr. Hamilton has incorrect information about...
...These may be fighting words to the authors, but most of my colleagues take them very seriously and work hard to translate those ideas into classroom reality for the students...
...The problem is that publicly traded corporations are in reality owned by a variety of citizens, among them: workers through their pension plans, small savers through their mutual funds, and young families through their insurance policies...
...One element of your "X-factor" applies to the mentally ill and substance-addicted homeless as well: Just because you're down and out doesn't mean you don't love your independence and your freedom to come and go...
...DeParle and Ms...
...Willrich has certainly made me look at and think more carefully about the top journalists whose very visibility seems to give them credibility...
...One of my responsibilities in the College of Letters and Science is the General Education curriculum, which was completely revised in 1987 by the faculty after a long and careful examination...
...I) $7 billion refers to the entire NIH budget for fiscal year 1989, including extramural research grants, training support, as well as intramural and other expenditures...
...Scott Shuger, March...
...Novak and his speech/appearance-making buddies insult not only the "little weenies" who believe in their calling but the reading and listening public as well...
...JILL BETH LANG Waldoboro, Maine Correction An item in "Tilting at Windmills" in our March issue about Panamanian banks and money laundering referred incorrectly to the relationship of the Dadeland Bank of Florida to a senior Panamanian official and accusations of money laundering...
...The recent graduates who alerted us to the course began their academic careers prior to the 1987 General Education revision noted by Dean Alpers and were thus governed by a somewhat less strenuous set of science requirements...
...Peters as it would result in a double whammy on rich folks...
...Mundy are seeking to make a legitimate point about the quality of undergraduate education, scattergun approaches such as the one with which they begin their article do not serve their cause well...
...EDWARD A. ALPERS Dean of Honors and Undergraduate Programs, UCLA Los Angeles, California The authors reply: Due to a transposition error, we wrongly scolded UCLA for "The History of Los Angeles...
...For them the housing solutions proposed by some advocates for the homeless are apt to be taken as threats of incarceration...
...The form it takes is often self-destructive and socially obnoxious, but many of the homeless may feel there's a certain dignity to it as well...
...the course to which we intended to refer, and to which the article's assessment applies, is "Atmospheric Sciences 4: California Weather and Climate...
...While there is no core curriculum at UCLA, the General Education curriculum consists of a meaningful set of distribution requirements, which "are intended to introduce undergraduates to the richness and diversity of the various academic disciplines" and "are designed to broaden your intellectual perspective and to set you on the path to becoming an educated member of society" (UCLA General Catalog 1989-90, p. 80...
...LETTERS Grant me this I read with interest David Hamilton's article on scientific misconduct ["White Coats, Black Deeds," April...
...But I'm not jealous...
...This notion, were it true, would have an undeniable appeal to Mr...
...ELIZABETH CROSSMAN New York, New York As a reporter working far, far, from the confines of the Beltway, I may well be categorized as one of Robert Novak's "little weenies," jealous of the niceties one can buy with honoraria income...
...Guillermo (Billy) Ford, second vicepresident of Panama, is not an owner of Dadeland...
...His underlying assumption appears to be that corporations are owned primarily by rich people...
...First, no such course exists at UCLA, and although a very fine upperdivision course is offered in the Department of History on that topic, it does not satisfy any General Education requirement...
...You say some things that have long needed saying, and your concern for the homeless is obviously not diminished by your candor...
...Early in their essay, when they are seeking to build up evidence to support their contention that "distribution requirements are in fact no more than a smoke-and-mirrors curricular trick," they criticize most universities for two forms of laxity: gut courses and narrowness of scope...
...Gut response A colleague recently brought to my attention an article in your magazine by Jason DeParle and Liza Mundy entitled "Why Higher Education is Neither" [October 1989...
...To illustrate the former, they assert that "students at UCLA last year could meet half of their science requirements with `Geology 150: The History of Los Angeles,' once voted one of the country's 10 easiest courses...
...JON AT HA N FOTOS Arlington, Virginia On liberty Many thanks for the courage and honesty of your investigation into the homeless ["Who are the Homeless...
...There are also published criteria for General Education courses, and the faculty strive to avoid additional course proliferation and overspecialization in approving any additions to the new list of approved General Education courses...
...But even under the current, post-revision regulations, UCLA undergraduates still can opt to study West Coast meteorology as a substitute for chemistry, math, or physics...
...Since these 25,148 extramural research grants cost $5 billion, this yields an average of nearly $200,000 per grant, not the $1.3 million per grant he quotes...
...by James S. Doyle in your March issue...
...No federal or state authorities have accused Dadeland of improper ties to the Medellin drug cartel...
...Nearly one-third of the graduation requirements in the College are devoted to General Education, which includes four courses in the Humanities, four in the Social Sciences (including both Social and Historical Analysis), three in the Life Sciences, and three in the Physical Sciences...
...While I appreciate the concern of the authors about the state of the undergraduate curriculum in American higher education, I would have had greater respect for the integrity of their perspective had they done their homework about my own university, UCLA...
...You must be hollow...
...2) NIH supported a total of 25,148 extramural research grants last year, of which 5,382 were new and competing research project grants...
...Who are these people to take their public so lightly...
...Thus, although Mr...
...Ethics start from within, Mr...
...I'm disgusted...
...Hamilton has incorrect information about the NIH's support for research grants...
...Novak...
...The portfolio of extramural research grants costs slightly more than $5 billion...
...ALICIA K. DUSTIRA Washington, D.C...
...HAL RIEDL Baltimore, Maryland Weenie-roast I would like to compliment The Washington Monthly for the article "Renting the Fourth Estate" by Michael Willrich and the supporting article "Journalists, Inc...
...Thank you for this timely article, which raises real issues about how public policy is perceived and made...
...The balance of the extramural research-grant portfolio included continuation (noncompeting) grants, center grants, and other research grants...
...Taxing rich peo ple at higher rates is an arguably legitimate policy, but doing it by taxing "affluent corporations" inadvertently places some of the burden on the people who are supposed to benefit from progressive tax policies...
...Stock response Charles Peters repeatedly lumps "affluent individuals" with "affluent corporations" whenever he calls for soaktherich taxes ["Tilting at Windmills," March...
...Second, and no less important, this statement does great disservice to UCLA's recent and continuing attempts to address precisely the kinds of issues that the authors would have us believe are central to their thesis...
Vol. 22 • June 1990 • No. 5
