tant in any engineering solution to a prob-
lem, the thinking typified by "We can't
have any pollution" will eventually lead to
the downfall of our civilization.
JOHN P. DENSLER
Boston University
Boston, Mass.
It's wonderful to know that I'm not alone!
I spent three years in the chemical-engi-
neering program taking humanities class-
es on the side. I left engineering last year to
pursue a dual degree in chemistry and Eng-
lish. The synthesis of these diametrically
opposed ways of thinking is important and
people who can do that will, I'm sure, be
indispensable in uniting the factions of our
society.
MICHELLE SERREYN
Wayne State University
Detroit, Mich.
Dorm Update
In your March issue, John S. Davis stated
that the term "dormitory" is outdated (THE
MAIL). I beg to differ. When you share a
room smaller than a $10-a-night hotel
room, the correct term is "dormitory," not
"residence hall."
DAVE WAGNER, "Dormie"
University of Wisconsin-Madison
Madison, Wis.
Turf Management
The grass seems greener just over the
neighbor's fence (CAREERS). Although turf-
grass management may seem an ideal col-
lege major, low salaries, long hours and
health risks due to pesticide exposure are
three major negatives students should con-
sider before deciding on this career.
JAMES W. MARQUART
Ohio State University
Columbus, Ohio
A New Course of Study?
I read your March cover story, "Colleges
Chart a New Course of Study," with dis-
tressing interest (EDUCATION). What the
editors had promised would be "a discus-
sion of some of the great issues facing high-
er education and college students today"
was but a patronizing and cursory treat-
ment of a subject that deserves better. No
wonder the man on your cover appears to
be undergoing a frontal lobotomy!
JOSEPH C. SMITH Jr., Staff Columnist
Yale Daily News
Yale University
New Haven, Conn.
Quality education is not just a variety of
subjects-it is equally necessary to have
quality professors. What is the good of a
prestigious school and a varied curriculum
if the teacher can't teach?
AMBROCIO P. BALDONADO
University of Southern California
Los Angeles, Calif
You state, "Despite Allan Bloom's fond-
est wish, we cannot stop time or freeze
knowledge." I'm sure that Professor Bloom
wishes to do neither. Rather, he wishes to
see our finest thinkers (college graduates)
exposed to the great thinkers ("Plato.
Shakespeare. Rousseau. Etc."). How can we
hope for any but technological progress if
our collegesproducegraduates who are fun-
damentally ignorant ofthe past?Thesurest
way to "freeze knowledge" is to throw out
what has already been learned in the cold.
CLAY BRIDGES
University ofAlabama
Tuscaloosa, Ala.
Your charge that Bloom's is a "Eurocen-
tric, male-centered, antidemocratic per-
spective" is itself the product of a shallow
perspective, ignorant of the Western intel-
lectual heritage and wedded to superficial-
ly examined dogmas. To brush off history's
most profound thinkers as "Etc." and the
truths they discovered as "reactionary"-
that, not Bloom's, is the "constricted
viewpoint."
MARK PUNDURS
Illinois Institute of Technology
Chicago, Ill.
* 0 0
Judging from what we have seen as stu-
dents and teachers at a large public univer-
sity, Professor Bloom is all too correct in
believing that modern students do not care
about a liberal education. We simply can-
not imagine hearing any of our undergrad-
uates using the words "passion" and "edu-
cation" in the same sentence, let alone
voluntarily meeting to discuss an intellec-
tual juggernaut such as Professor Bloom's
book. As for the "chronological snobbery"
of your conclusion that although the past
can speak to us, "we must consider the
present and the future," we'd like to ask
why permanence should carry with it a
connotation of stagnation in the modern
mind? Is the new automatically superior
to the old?
KEVIN B. WEINRICH
MICHAEL J. MORECRAFT
University of Georgia
Athens, Ga.
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