Letters

Published: Friday, March 1, 2002

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