Dear Editor,
Your article, “Librarians look for staffing relief,” which appeared in the April 26 issue, hit a chord among many of us who feel that the library is a critical resource for ULV to meet our goals for educational excellence as we go into the next century.
Resources are tight all over campus, but we know that the strength of our library is a major factor in our reputation to outside students considering coming to the University and to both on- and off-campus students. Computer resources add tremendous amounts of information, but this information must be managed and accessed by human beings. It will be years before all of our students, especially our evening students, are comfortable with the process of finding some of these resources without aid from professional librarians. Additional support staff would clear up the librarians to use their expertise to help students, rather than being tied down to clerical duties such as loading copy machines.
As the adviser of the Business Students Organization, I am often part of discussions regarding the need for increased library hours, especially around exam time. It is obvious that increased hours are only possible with increased staff to support them. I am in great sympathy with the many demands for funds at ULV, but I am also in great sympathy with the need to place top priority with our libraries, one of nation’s greatest legacies.
Janis Dietz
Assistant Professor of Business Administration
Dear Editor,
I feel it important to respond to a statement in the Campus Times editorial of the May 3 issue [“Taking diversity to next level”], written in reference to poor attendance at University-sponsored lectures. “However, what are the odds that a math professor will postpone his teaching for the day so his students and himself can listen to a visitor speak of his life?” I would guess that the odds for a math professor are about the same as for any other professor. Although no faculty member can afford to give up the class time to have students attend every University-wide lecture on campus, I have dismissed my mathematics classes for each and every Fasnacht Lecture that has been held, as well as quite a few lectures sponsored by the Honors Program and various other groups.
Some persons have expressed extreme surprise that I would encourage students to drop vector calculus or differential equations for an hour to listen to views on various religions or celebrations of our differences. Those surprised persons have perhaps forgotten that mathematicians and mathematics students are members of the world community and don’t live only in an isolated world of abstract ideas and complicated expressions (although we may hang out there at times). The Campus Times could help dispel that myth by refraining from such remarks in the future. Keep those special events coming!
Dr. Michael Frantz
Chair, Mathematics/Physics/Computer Science/Optical Engineering Department
Dear Editor,
We, the members of the Gay, Lesbian and Bisexual Student Union (GLBSU), would like to publicly declare that we had absolutely no knowledge of or involvement in the publication of the “Gay bashing is not a team sport” flier.
Members of the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual Student Union
Janis Dietz
Michael Frantz
