Letter: Institute objections could do better

By Letter to the Editor / October 7, 2008

As a liberal Democrat, I find it distressing that the faculty opposed to the Milton Friedman Institute would champion Naomi Klein to “lead the attack,” as it were.

Student-death coverage distasteful

By Letter to the Editor / October 4, 2008

These stories were being shared so poorly and baldly by the Maroon on the front page of the paper, marginalizing stories of renewal and revitalization so important to our community and new students.

Letter: Student Leader Awards not worth the gripe

By Letter to the Editor / June 3, 2008

I wanted to compliment you on publishing an op-ed as reactionary and implausibly reasoned as Rebecca Shi, Tsion Gurmu, and Cristina Perez’s recent article concerning Student Leader Awards (“Award Culture,” 5/30/08). Aside from [providing] thin anecdotal evidence for the contributions made by over-funded cultural organizations to life on campus and overestimating the benefits of Student...

Letter: G.I. Bill only benefits the rich

By Letter to the Editor / June 3, 2008

As a third-year in the College and a four-year veteran of the United States Navy, I was touched and honored to read Ryan McCarl’s “Vetoing Memorial Day” (5/30/2008). However, I must wholeheartedly disagree that it would be in the best interests of our country’s veterans to significantly increase the G.I. Bill. First, the current payment...

Letter: U of C students not so common after all

By Letter to the Editor / May 30, 2008

As a U of C alum, I wholeheartedly disagree with Hill's basic contention that "life here is entirely unspectacular...[and] the uncommon life is actually pretty common."

Letter: Life of the mind doesn’t mean death of fun

By Letter to the Editor / May 30, 2008

It seems that Zack Hill's analysis of how "being a University of Chicago student often requires doublethink" ("Finding Common Ground," 5/23/08) falls into the common mistake of creating a dichotomy between philosophizing and experience.

Letter: Self-esteem does not mean self-centered

By Letter to the Editor / May 20, 2008

In “The Self-Esteem Soap Opera” (5/16/08), Matt Barnum makes two points I disagree with. First, he points out that self-esteem campaigns are essentially delusional, attempting to convince us that true beauty is on the inside, when everyone knows that physical beauty really is important. I agree that focusing on the importance of physical beauty over...

Letter: Kraft’s defense of Slow Food backwards

By Letter to the Editor / May 20, 2008

The “buy better tuna fish” Strategy, outlined by James Kraft in his characteristically shortsighted article (The Weary Epicurean, 5/13/08), is less a suggestion of how to modestly apply Slow Food principles to everyday eating, but rather a bourgie attempt to refute a valid criticism of the potential implausibility of such a culinary movement existing in...

Letter: Attack of library overlooks research needs

By Letter to the Editor / May 20, 2008

Your editorial on the planned library addition (“A Dome Idea,” 5/16/08) conflates serious, graduate-level academic research at the University—to which the new facilities represent a substantial commitment—with the College’s supposedly “quirky, book-obsessed culture.” The former is at the heart of the University’s purpose; the latter is an empty phrase indicative of the undergraduate student body’s...

Letter: Library concerns off the mark

By Letter to the Editor / May 16, 2008

Claire McNear’s worries about the new library (“Sticking It to the Man,” 5/12/08) are sort of humorous, but it also sounds like she genuinely has something against the construction of the new library. I seriously doubt that “the newest campus library will be like no library before it.” It will probably be much like the...

Letter: Obama’s message is not a hollow one

By Letter to the Editor / May 16, 2008

In “Yes, I Can” (5/12/08), Nathan Bloom uses misleading numbers to attack a presidential candidate, then makes a sloppy argument about the reason Americans are dissatisfied with their government. Most importantly, Bloom’s assertion that 1/4 of Americans are lazily projecting their dissatisfaction with the country’s state of affairs onto the “system” isn’t based in reality....

McNear wrong about Earth Week

By Letter to the Editor / May 1, 2008

Claire McNear’s op-ed about the U of C’s Earth Week celebration last week (“Seven-Day Activists,” 4/29/08) reflected a fairly poor understanding of Earth Week and its aims. In the first place, Earth Week activities on campus were organized by a broad coalition of environmental groups, each with their own interests and goals. The Sustainability Council...