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Lean to the Left

LEAN TO THE RIGHT, STAND UP, SIT DOWN . . .

LET ME ADD MY VOICE to what by this time must be an angry chorus in response to the administration's endorsement of the student committee's "unanimous" choice of discredited ex-president Bill Clinton for '04 Convocation speaker (From the Hill, May/ June 2004). And let us all reflect on how this unanimity may have come about: could it be a result of the overwhelming leftward tilt of the faculty, as reported months ago by the Wall Street Journal? Left-leaning professors do produce left-leaning graduates, don't they?

John Turrel '43
Mt. Vernon, Illinois

CANCEL MY SUBSCRIPTION TO CORNELL, writes Jen Gage Sage '83, offended that Bill Clinton was selected by the senior class to be its Convocation speaker and that President Lehman "heartily approved this choice" (Correspondence, May/June 2004). She invites other like-minded alumni to join her. Undoubtedly there are some alumni who will be deeply troubled when George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Richard Perle, or Paul Wolfowitz '65 are invited to speak at Cornell. I know I will. I didn't like it when Cheney was the guest speaker at Reunion a decade ago, so I didn't attend his speech--end of protest.

Since that time, my connection to Cornell has only broadened and deepened, as a supporter of the Cornell Chimes and an attendee of Cornell Adult University. It has helped my relationship to become involved in specific activities, and I believe I enjoy Cornell even more now than I did as an undergraduate. Of course, it doesn't hurt that, without papers to write or examinations to take,my bond is a purely hedonistic one. It takes a mental effort to come to campus on a beautiful fall or spring weekend and recall that not every student walking by me is in a state of enviable bliss.

But what is the University to do about its future guest speakers? Should Cornell limit itself to Tom Brokaw five times a year, occasionally leavened with Walter Cronkite? Should it survey all alumni for detested political figures and limit itself to inviting non-controversial political leaders, such as Gerald Ford? Whoops, forgot--he pardoned Nixon. Or can Cornell trust its alumni to maintain contact, support, and constancy, irrespective of who the guest speaker is that month, remaining a university for all seasons? I favor the latter.

George Ubogy '58
Greenwich, Connecticut

Burning Question

THE UNION OF CONCERNED SCIENTISTS charges the Bush Administration with distortion of scientific findings ("Open Question," Currents, May/June 2004). The report of Professor Kurt Gottfried and his colleagues targets a serious concern for both scientists and the public-- and I agree that it's important for both the media and the administration to pay attention to serious, peer-reviewed science in arriving at good public policy. But the history of the UCS as a discoverer of nuclear power safety problems is vastly overblown. Henry Kendall's attention was raised by a couple of activists who were intrigued by the results of a simple experiment about emergency cooling of reactor cores. Henry never understood it--but, he told me, his vision of a solar-powered world required the elimination of its perceived competitor, nuclear power.

The UCS founders utilized the media to dramatize the test results. Charges of a "cover-up" aided the campaign. The AEC experts were not surprised at the results; they expected them.What surprised them was the interest in Congress that the UCS and a bunch of letters generated. A major public rulemaking hearing was established by the AEC. A vicious lawyer and an eager press then influenced the commissioners to write a rule that limited designs of nuclear power plants. It took a couple of decades before the NRC re-examined the evidence and rewrote the rule. It was the UCS that distorted scientific findings.

A. David Rossin '53
University Park, Florida

Ed. Note: Rossin was assistant secretary for nuclear energy, United States Department of Energy, 1986–87.

Kurt Gottfried responds: Contrary to the impression that Dr. Rossin's letter may give, the Union of Concerned Scientists has not and does not now oppose nuclear power categorically, but has been concerned with the safety problems associated with the U.S. civilian nuclear plants. That this concern continues to be justified is illustrated by the recent near-accident at the Davis-Besse plant in Ohio. That UCS was a serious actor on this issue already many years ago is shown by the fact that the governor of Pennsylvania called on Henry Kendall for advice after the Three Mile Island accident. I was a very close friend of Kendall, a Nobel Laureate in physics who died five years ago; I never heard him voice the opinion that Dr. Rossin recalls.

SHARON TREGASKIS POSES AN "Open Question: Has the Bush Administration Distorted Scientific Findings?" The article goes on to admonish the federal government for giving national defense priority over climate change. Climate changes such as the ice ages are measured in tens of thousands of years. Then there are mini-ice ages measured in centuries, none of which can be modified by man-made legislation. But the climate changes affecting today's humans are the changes from winter to summer. This problem was largely solved in most of Western Civilization during the twentieth century.

Today, climate controlled and filtered air is found in our homes, vehicles, offices, shopping centers, hotels, and hospitals-- indeed, wherever we breathe. It is not surprising that the government would leave adaptation to climate change to the private sector guided by the dictates of private enterprise. The process is more practical than trying to air-condition the great outdoors and costs the government nothing. While the Bush Administration spends taxpayer funds on national defense, the Union of Concerned Scientists lobbies for more funds to combat global warming, ozone depletion, acid rain, and other questionable theories.

Harry Smith '38
Sun City Center, Florida

Sharon Tregaskis responds: Professor Gottfried did not "admonish the federal government for giving national defense priority over climate change"; rather, he stated the UCS's concern with what they see as censorship and distortion of scientific knowledge by the Bush Administration in several areas, including climate change.

Corrections

"Out of the Closet" (March/April 2004), the article about the Cornell costume collection, incorrectly referred to the College of Human Ecology as the School of Human Ecology.

In "R&D" (May/June 2004), chemist Paul Chirik was incorrectly identified as a "biochemist."

The caption for a photograph on page 56 in "A Passage to India" (May/June 2004) is incorrect. The structure identified as the "Gateway to India in Mumbai" is actually the Charminar in Hyderabad.

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