Recession exacerbated by Bush, not Sept. 11
Thanks to Theodore Anderson (“Professor’s
criticism is hypocritical, misleading“ Letters,
Viewpoint, Feb. 27) for clarifying a side point in my argument
which I had no space to refine.
After Clinton led the longest peacetime expansion in modern
history, the first hints of recession did indeed emerge in his
final lame-duck months, became worse when Bush was appointed as
successor, and much worse again in the months after Bush took
office ““ long before the Sept. 11 atrocities on which
Bush’s handlers are now trying to place the blame.
But is it “temperate,” or instead
“misleading” (to use Anderson’s terms), to equate
my necessary shorthand for this pattern with the malfeasances of
Enron executives? Is it even wise, I wonder, for a right-leaning
professor of finance to remind people of the Enron story?
Robert N. Watson Professor of English
Engineering
Students only out for money suck
After reading Edward Chiao’s Feb. 25 column
(“Engineering
students need to stick with it,” Viewpoint), I finally
realize why I am attending UCLA ““ to earn a degree that will
allow me to leech as much money out of the world as I can before I
die.
Not only should this be every student’s main reason for
going to college, but it is also the sole purpose for any human
being to live life! Big deal if you suffer through classes you do
not care about, while trudging to the dismal dirge that would be
the anthem to a well-paying job you would hate.
You see, Chiao broke it down quite nicely for my simple mind:
everyone who applies to UCLA dreams of the prestigious Henry
Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science (HSSEAS), and
those unfortunate souls without an intellect adequate to make the
cut must settle for second place with majors such as biology and
economics.
Furthermore, all students who change majors out of HSSEAS do so
because the imperfect admissions system accidentally let these
feeble-minded subhumans enroll, and now they are finding the
classes too difficult to deal with.
It is apparent from Chiao’s column that his personal plan
is to finish his B.S. in electrical engineering before studying
business in graduate school. This would maximize his probability of
earning a six-digit salary.
Chiao has no doubt lived an extremely secure life that could
only be brought about by wealthy parents. So I do not blame you for
your opinions; you are quite naturally only trying to recreate the
life ““ complete with all the security, predictability, and
false fulfillment ““ that your parents have provided for
you.
You should not assume that every person has had a similar
personal history to yours, resulting in similar perspectives and
goals. Yours was the most arrogantly elitist Viewpoint column I
have read to date, and regular readers would know what an
accomplishment that is.
At the very least, you should consider taking some North campus
writing classes so you can try to be grammatically correct and
possess some semblance of writing style. Employers may like your
“ability to analyze critically and quantitatively,” but
I think they would also expect you to be literate.
Charles Mander Third-year Aerospace
engineering
Go engineering!
Thank you very much for your column encouraging engineering
students to stick with it. As you point out, our country needs
more engineers, and the engineering major can really seem tough at
times.
Keep up the good work!
Bill Goodin MS “˜71, Ph.D “˜75 President, UCLA
Engineering Alumni Association