Letters to the Editor
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‘Two Opposite Responses to Terrorism’
Columnist Daniel Pipes’s comparison between Nepal and France missed an important reference: religion [“Two Opposite Responses to Terrorism,” Foreign, September 14, 2004]. While France is marching toward becoming an Islamic state, Nepal’s population is 86% Hindu and is the only official Hindu country in the world.
The 12 men murdered in Iraq were Hindus. The rage in Nepal can be traced to the awakening of the Hindu community through Hindutva, a brand of nationalism, and it appears that Hindus are no longer willing to sit back while Muslims attack them.
A similar level of rage occurred in Godhra, India, in 2001, when Muslims attacked a train carrying Hindu pilgrims. Fifty-six Hindu men, women, and children met their premature death in the most gruesome way.
They were burnt to death by a mindlessly hateful mob on a train where the compartments were doused with inflammables and locked from outside to cause the maximum number of deaths. Like the Nepalese, these people were singled out because of their religion.
These unprovoked attacks stirred the Hindu communities in Nepal and India, and what resulted was violence and rage against those who murdered them in the name of Islam.
Unlike the Eurabian French, Hindus in India and Nepal no longer appear willing to appease Islamic terrorists at the price of their religious and cultural survival.
NARESH RAGHUBEER
Executive Director Canadian Coalition for Democracies
Toronto, Ontario Canada
CUNY Undergrad SAT Scores
Re: “CUNY Misrepresented SAT Scores of Its Undergraduates” [Page One, September 17, 2004]. Jacob Gershman disagrees with the fact that the university reports on the increased number of students who not only apply to CUNY but are admitted. He was informed that universities such as the State University of New York at Stonybrook, the University of Maryland at College Park, Purdue University, and the University of Florida all report information on admitted students.
Other examples are California State University and Georgetown University. Mr. Gershman also did not report that the College Entrance Examination Board declined to support his position.
I personally checked with Herman Badillo, who agreed that information about admitted students indicates who is now eligible based on the reforms that he, Chairman Benno Schmidt, and others successfully fought for.
The “new” CUNY Honors College – established four years ago – has attracted high academic achievers in record numbers at Baruch, Brooklyn, City, Hunter, Lehman, and Queens Colleges, and the College of Staten Island and serves 1,029 students who had many academic options but chose CUNY. CUNY is “back on the radar screens” of high-average students.
As recently as September 15, the New York Times reported, “CUNY did not release the SAT scores of its new students. But it said the students it admitted – only some of whom enrolled – were stronger than in the past,” [“SUNY and CUNY Enrollments Rise Despite Tougher Standards”]. Additional information is routinely provided later in the semester to college guides and other agencies.
So why the false “misrepresent ed” charge? Mr. Gershman acknowledges that critics of the CUNY reforms predicted that CUNY senior colleges would lose half of their undergraduate student body and half of the minority students. When the Board of Trustees and Chancellor Goldstein revamped CUNY’s testing policies, introducing new assessments and accountability measures, the naysaying continued.
The New York Times, the Daily News, and the New York Post (and not The New York Sun) reported last week that CUNY’s enrollment is now at 217,588, the highest since 1975, and that enrollment has risen steadily.
It comes as no surprise that the fact that the university is attracting more better prepared students – by any measurement – would be criticized by some supporters of prior policies. This will not diminish the resolve of the university leadership to continue both the implementation of reforms and the provision of high quality education to the people of our city and state.
JAY HERSHENSON
Secretary and Vice Chancellor
CUNY
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