Letters to the Editor

Latest Letters

• Wheelock, Too, Seeks to Keep Sophomores From a Slump

  "It is important for faculty and administrators to remember that carefully crafted cocurricular programs that target sophomores can go a long way toward reducing the 'vacuum'...

• Singapore Needs Foreign Universities' Expertise

  "Among Singaporean friends and colleagues, I note much enthusiasm for new ideas and a willingness to experiment--tempered by a persistent fear of steering too far from the...

• To Succeed in Communication, Keep Aristotle's Lessons in Mind

  "Too often, we get vocabulary that remains trapped inside insider jargon, and a presentation hiding behind dreary reading of PowerPoint slides."

• A Linguistics Debate Continues

• Memo to Berkeley: Look to Data Before Undertaking Grand Projects

  "The claim that a grand project will generate indirect benefits is rarely critically assessed with real-world data."

• If College Students Are Research Subjects, Do Results Apply to Others?

  "The typical psychological research conducted on a sample obtained from a college-student participant pool may not be generalizable beyond the age of emerging adulthood."

• Working at Starbucks With Your B.A.? Not to Worry.

  "The college graduate who waits table has a future, and he or she knows it. The restaurant job is another stage of education, as important and necessary for developing better...

• Students' Sense of Entitlement Drives Away a Faculty Member

  "I even endured several instances of students' insisting they should pass my course simply because they had paid their fees and purchased the required textual materials."

• So You've Got Technology. You Still Need the Humanities.

  "If education is merely a 'commodity' that enables individuals to tailor their learning so they can earn more, disastrous results should not surprise us."

• Motivation Is Neither 'Fixed' nor 'Inborn'

  "Motivation is usually seen as one of the more alterable and changeable factors in human behavior."

• Student Loans? The Real Problem Is College Costs

  "What happened to the public system, including state colleges and universities, that was supposed to provide affordable, quality education to a wide variety of students?"

• Congress: It's Time to Pass the Dream Act

  "We should embrace these successful young people and reward their commitment to America with a reasonable path toward citizenship."

• 'Food Politics' and Publishing Standards: the Debate Continues

  "The more than 5,000 signers of our petition to Oxford University Press appear to grasp the purpose of our appeal."

• Israel's Rights and Moral Quandaries

  Readers respond to the commentary "Israel's Moral Imperative," by Alan Wolfe.

• 5 Degrees, 20 Years' Experience, One Job Interview

  "I am beginning to feel that my work experience outside the academic world is simply not valued."

• At Salem State U., 'We Regularly Bemoan the Plight of Our Adjuncts'

  "For every adjunct who wants to hold out for better conditions, there are several more ready and swift to subvert such organization by accepting substandard compensation."

• Colleges Could Collaborate to Offer a Variety of Experiences

  "If a student completed a freshman year in Pennsylvania, could he not spend a second year in California and a third in Louisiana, for example, before returning to the home...

• Johns Hopkins U. Is Committed to Help Medical-Campus Neighborhood

  "Long-term problems are not resolved overnight, but this is a sustained, strategic effort, and it is starting to show solid results."

• University Counseling Centers Must Embrace Their Limitations

  "To do any less only elevates the risks for some students and misleads parents when making a decision about what's best for their son or daughter."

• Can Criticizing a Book Go Too Far?

  "My academic associates would never think of starting with a back-door letter of complaint to my publisher, or a disingenuous petition drive on the Internet, or by hijacking...