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‘An Unvarnished Look’

The best ever? We're not sure . . . but thanks! The best ever? We're not sure . . . but thanks! I am not exaggerating when I say that the July/August 2010 issue of Cornell Alumni Magazine is the best ever! All of the staff deserves kudos for such an honest look at our […]

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The best ever? We're not sure . . . but thanks!

The best ever? We're not sure . . . but thanks!

I am not exaggerating when I say that the July/August 2010 issue of Cornell Alumni Magazine is the best ever! All of the staff deserves kudos for such an honest look at our alma mater. From President Skorton's essay to the insightful Letter from Ithaca, from the sad news about student deaths to the historical piece about the Red Scare and the frank discussion of identity politics—you deserve many compliments. So many alumni magazines are filled with nostalgia, scenes of the old days, honors the faculty have won—you, in contrast, have offered an unvarnished look at a great university.

Nancy Mynott Davis '46
Avon, Connecticut

Cold Warriors

As an ILR graduate, I found the article "'Red Cornell': Cornell in the Cold War (Part I)" (July/August 2010) fascinating but disturbing. I remember my wonderful years at Cornell most of all for the diversity of the student body and faculty, and for our willingness to speak our minds freely whatever our point of view. I believed then and now that much more harm was done to our country by anti-communist hysteria than was ever done by encouraging liberal and progressive thought and action. It's frightening that some trustees in those postwar years believed that Cornell, in founding the ILR school together with New York State and its conservative governor, Thomas Dewey, was "opening the door to subversives." I never considered myself or my ILR classmates subversive, but rather a varied, well-educated, open-minded, interested, and interesting group, somewhat older than the average students because so many of us were veterans. Here's to Cornell and the School of Industrial and Labor Relations—in the Cold War years and beyond.

Barbara Cole Feiden '48
White Plains, New York

As a former Russian and Soviet studies major, I was most interested in the Cold War article. Aware of Cornell's reputation in Slavic studies before matriculating, I had realized neither its longevity nor genesis. More striking, though, Altschuler and Kramnick's research highlights one of Cornell's major strengths: its enduring commitment to open-minded and free expression, the notion that all points of view—no matter how welcome or repugnant—deserve to be aired.

Today, in a world characterized by fear, misunderstanding, and polarization, we must never forget President Day's injunction to "spell out the responsibilities, individual and collective, which go along with the rights [our founding fathers] established . . . responsibilities without which our rights today cannot be permanently retained."

Marcie S. Gitlin '79
New York, New York

I read with interest the first installment of "Cornell in the Cold War." As an Ithacan, a Cornellian, and the son of a Cornell professor, I couldn't resist sharing a relevant experience.

In 1950, when I was twelve years old, a public school classmate and I found a letter on the sidewalk in downtown Ithaca that was addressed to one of the Cornell professors mentioned in your article. It was an invitation to a reception celebrating the October Revolution to be held at the Soviet embassy. My classmate and I turned in the invitation at the Ithaca police station.

While this experience was insignificant in itself, I cite it as an example of the pervasive effect that HUAC and McCarthyism had on the vulnerable youth of the time. While we believed our action was patriotic, today, as a liberal-minded adult, I am appalled at how naïve we were in concluding that receipt of such an invitation was somehow criminal. The notion of "Red Cornell" had a broad impact on the entire community—and, in my case, it provided an early education concerning the constitutional guarantee of free speech.

John Siegfried '60
Cleveland, Ohio

A Unique Problem

I understand your frustration about getting CAM to more alumni ("'A Unique Link' [Redux]," Letter from Ithaca, July/August 2010). I stopped paying class dues several years after graduating, in part because the schools where I received my master's and PhD attracted more of my attention. I recently began to pay dues again, but my support for Cornell remains minimal because I get more "bang for my buck" bolstering my other schools, which need money more than Cornell does. This is especially true for the Union Institute and University (its name was the Union for Experimenting Colleges and Universities when I received my PhD in 1977), where I serve as a director for its international alumni association and face the daunting challenge of getting support from graduates. I suspect many other Cornell alumni think as I do.

Gerald Schneider '61
Kensington, Maryland

Remembering the Duke

I was at the famous Duke Ellington concert at Cornell in December 1948 ("Reminiscing in Tempo," Currents, July/August 2010). It was a wonderful event that lingers in my memory like a jewel. Some say that it inspired Ellington to commit himself to more of these concerts, at a time when the big bands were fading in popular taste. But your article left out the biggest performer of them all—Kay Davis, who had a larger range than Joan Sutherland. When she sang "Creole Love Call" from behind the curtain, she sent a thrill through the audience that has never been duplicated in my sixty years of concert-going. I also remember that when Whitney Balliett '49, BA '51, wrote movie criticism for the Daily Sun, it was often so biting that it drove the downtown theater owners up the wall. In fact, they pulled all their ads for a period of time—a famous free-speech issue in our time, the era of McCarthyism. The owners eventually capitulated when their audiences dwindled to a trickle. Score one for freedom of the press.

Harvey Turner '52
Mendham, New Jersey

Second Opinions

I found the letter from Scott Peer '80 ludicrous and offensive (Correspondence, July/August 2010). Peer belittled a Cornell Republican's cry for academic diversity in political thought by asking if the writer wanted courses on creationism. Obviously Peer realizes that creationism is not a Republican platform plank and evolutionary theory not a Democratic one. I am sure Peer never had to defend his political viewpoint alone against twenty classmates (and the TA too). And I am sure he never had his poster of President Ronald Reagan mocked and defaced while posters of Che Guevara were honored in many rooms around campus.

When leftist radicals come to campuses, protests against them are usually polite and legal. When conservative speakers come to campuses, they are often threatened, boycotted, or interrupted. It all adds up to a lack of tolerance for the broad spectrum of political thought that exists in this country but not on our elite college campuses.

John Pisacane '82
San Jose, California

I enjoy reading the correspondence and being exposed to divergent views. Opinions backed up by rationale, facts, and suggested actions are enlightening and thought provoking. Such is the case for every letter in the July/August 2010 issue except for the one from Scott Peer. After expressing disdain for a previous correspondent's thoughts, Peer offers no constructive alternative—only sarcastic speculation. How appropriate is pejorative correspondence that lacks constructive substance in an alumni forum for the institution that boasts "any person, any study"?

William Russo '71, ME '72
Dayton, Ohio

More Star Power

In Beth Saulnier's profile of Corey Earle '07 ("Living History," July/August 2010), the subsection on Cornell actors and fictional Cornellians had a couple of notable omissions. First, the obvious one: Carl Sagan. Second, the not-so-obvious one: In the movie Starman, Charles Martin Smith portrays a SETI researcher, and in the opening scene he's wearing a Cornell sweatshirt.

Arnie Berger '66, PhD '71
Sammamish, Washington

Ed. Note: Thanks. We're not sure that Carl Sagan qualifies—he was neither an actor nor a fictional character—although he was certainly a "star" as well as a Cornell professor.

Reality Test

Many of the problems described by Barbara Osgood '56, PhD '80, in her letter (Correspondence, July/August 2010) could be solved by abandoning the fiction of "no kill" animal shelters and pursuing a more aggressive program of euthanasia. I understand that many people become emotionally involved with their pets—I wept when our aged dog had to be given a lethal injection. But people who extend those emotions to rescuing cats and dogs, which Osgood describes as "heartbreaking, exhausting, and emotionally draining work," are treading on the verge of insanity. It is impossible to find a loving home for every newborn dog and cat, and it makes more sense to reduce their numbers. I trust that Cornell vets are learning that reality.

David West '55, PhD '59
Blacksburg, Virginia

Corrections—July/August 2010

"Identity Politics," page 52: In the article's subhead (and also in the table of contents), we referred to Dana Beyer '74 as "transgendered." The preferred term is "transgender." The article's author, Brad Herzog '90, is blameless—the word "transgendered" was introduced during the editing process. We were unaware of the distinction and thank Elizabeth Muller Casparian '84 for setting us straight.

Legacies, page 98: (1) Lindsay Rosenblum '13 was listed as a fourth-generation Cornellian; she is actually a fifth-generation Cornellian. Omitted from the list were her great-grandfather, Edwin S. Knauss '20, and her great-great-grandfather, Freeman C. Pond 1893. (2) Luise Steinbrenner Weiss '58 was inadvertently omitted from the Four Cornell Generations list. She is the grandmother of Michele Weiss '13.

Alumni Deaths, page 102: John W. Darley Jr., BEE '49, Quinton W. Simkins, BEE '49, and Edward J. Querner, BME '50, were all described as members of Tau Beta Phi. This should have been Tau Beta Pi, the national engineering honor society. We regret the error and thank Roger Thayer, BEE '49, MEE '52, for pointing it out.

Cornelliana, page 112: Mike Whalen '69, whose donation of Cornell memorabilia was described, writes: "While I greatly enjoyed the article, I need to correct one small error. There are photographs in Kroch Library of students playing baseball on the Arts Quad during the nineteenth century, but they are not stereo photographs and not part of the collection that I donated. I was less than clear when I described them to Erica Souther-land '10. Mea culpa."

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