Dept: Letters

Letters to the Editor0

Spring 2008

Green Thoughts I wish to applaud your coverage of the University’s efforts to reduce its environmental footprint, as discussed in “Blue, Orange, and Green” (Winter 2007) and to also thank Mr. [Sonny] Beale and his colleagues for exceeding a 41 percent recycling rate. I had the pleasure of majoring in environmental science at the University in the early 1970s and am heartened by efforts to improve environmental sustainability on Grounds. I was discouraged, though, to see that little is being done to recycle food scraps. Virginia’s citizens discard an average of 345 pounds of food scraps per person per year (amounting...

Letters to the Editor0

Winter 2007

Jefferson and Hemings I would like to congratulate Maura Singleton for the well-researched and written article “Anatomy of a Mystery” (Fall 2007), which presents both sides of the Jefferson-Hemings issue. The quote from Joseph Ellis—“History is an argument without end”—is a reasonable quote, but I don’t believe that I would use one from such a Jefferson basher who has a real credibility problem, e.g., he was placed on leave from Mount Holyoke College for lying for over 20 years to his students. It should be pointed out that DNA evidence cannot prove paternity but can disprove paternity, as...

Letters to the Editor0

Fall 2007

Virginia Tech It warms my heart to see the kind of support that U.Va. has truly led on behalf of many universities across the nation. The magazine cover is a stunning tribute to your sister university and the recent tragedy. We are grateful beyond expression. I have sent the cover and inside articles to my entire board of directors and alumni chapters, because we all are proud to have the support of your alumni and entire university. You established a memorial fund at U.Va. to support us before we did that on our own campus. That speaks volumes. ...

Letters to the Editor1

Summer 2007

The Tragedy at Virginia Tech April 16, 2007 Adapted from a message sent by President Casteen to members of the University community The shootings this morning at Virginia Tech have turned a seemingly normal day into one filled with grief and disbelief. For U.Va., especially on this day, Virginia Tech is family. Many of us have parents, daughters and sons, sisters and brothers, and friends who study, teach, or work in Blacksburg. Many of us are Tech alumni. Our hearts are with Virginia Tech and its many families today, and they will be so long into the future as we remember...

Letters to the Editor0

Spring 2007

On Africa Thank you for spotlighting the work that Dr. Robert Swap and his colleagues are doing in southern Africa. I have had the privilege to work with Professor Swap for the past five years, both as a teaching assistant for the study abroad class and as a visiting researcher at the University of Venda in South Africa. There are several merits to this undergraduate study abroad program. First, more than half of the program’s applicants each year are women. In 2004, the program had the highest percentage of minority student enrollment of any U.Va.-sponsored program. Between a...

Letters to the Editor0

Winter 2006

Origins of Life, Revisited The letter against intelligent design [in reference to “Ultimate Questions,” Summer 2006] signed by 49 U.Va. science faculty is revealing: not only do they oppose ID due to a false characterization of the theory, but they repeat false claims that there are no pro-ID, peer-reviewed science publications. The faculty wrongly define ID as saying, “The less we know, the greater is the support for supernatural explanations.” In reality, ID limits its claims to what can be learned from the empirical data. ID therefore only appeals to intelligent causes and does not try to address unscientific religious questions...

Letters to the Editor0

Fall 2006

Debating Intelligent Design I was astonished to see an article about intelligent design (“Ultimate Questions,” Summer ’06) in the alumni magazine of one of the nation’s leading universities, and my alma mater. It seemed particularly disturbing that the article invoked founding father Thomas Jefferson, who was so clearly a product of the Enlightenment. Certainly the University is and should be a forum for open debate and the exchange of ideas, and the campus should allow for all kinds of clubs, even those that some might find distasteful. But casting intelligent design as an alternative to the theory of evolution in...

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