Student Government at Brooklyn College

Assertions have been made that the Brooklyn College student government was shut down [“School Officials Disband Student Government,” Jacob Gershman, New York, November 19, 2004]. Here are the facts:

Late in September, the president of the student government appealed to the college administration to settle a dispute about procedural steps taken by the Student Government Assembly, an appeal the administration took seriously. Over the next few weeks, while the administration looked into the matter, the assembly as well as all student clubs and organizations continued to function without interruption. Only after the findings seemed to show that the appeal had merit was the assembly suspended for a short period until the issue could be completely resolved with the participation of all parties.

This student government-driven matter has nothing to do with academic freedom. Brooklyn College respects the right to full expression and the academic integrity of students as well as faculty and embraces all points of views. It is one of the reasons the college attracts top-level students and counts distinguished scholars and artists among its faculty. And one of the reasons why it has students like Eugene Shenderov, just named a Rhodes Scholar, as The New York Sun reported as a “stunning triumph.”

PATRICIA WILLARD
Interim Director of Communications
Brooklyn College
Brooklyn

Housing the U.N.

The New York Sun’s article on replacing the United Nations with housing, and the opposition to converting the lot at East 41st and 42nd Streets and First Avenue to a U.N. office building, are economically misguided [“U.N. Would Be Fine Site for Housing,” Julie Satow, Page One, November 30, 2004].

One can think of any locality, such as New York City, as a country with export industries that fuel its entire economy.

New York City has five such export industries: finance, corporate headquarters, fashion, tourism, and the U.N. The first four are subject to wide fluctuations or relocation.

Finance and corporate headquarters jobs have been moving out of New York City for many years. For example, Verizon, perhaps the only Fortune 100 company headed by a native New Yorker, is about to move its headquarters to Virginia or New Jersey. The former Prudential Securities is now Wachovia, with its headquarters in Charlotte, N.C.

The U.N. and the legations of 150 nations bring a huge flow of dollars to the real estate and service industries of New York City, regardless of the economic cycle. Removing the U.N. would end this, and dramatically harm tourism as well.

The existing U.N. site would not be a “gold mine of residential development,” but would signal the collapse of New York real estate values, particularly on the East side of Manhattan.

Likewise, the block between East 41st and 42nd Streets and First Avenue and the FDR Drive is hardly the leafy park that your unrepresentative photo indicates: It is primarily a brick airshaft for the tunnel below, with a small asphalt park on part of it.

Trading that virtually unused roller rink for a breezy esplanade along the East River would be a major gain for the neighborhood and all New York. More U.N. Secretariat jobs in New York means more demand for goods and services in New York City, without added pollution.

We should not let our revulsion for the U.N.’s embrace of tyrants and tolerance for terrorists harm our own economic self-interest.

LAURENT BAPTISTE
Eastchester, N.Y.

‘Gifted Students Under Fire’

I was pleased to see Andrew Wolf’s column on Gifted and Talented Programs in the New York Sun [“Gifted Students Under Fire,” Opinion, November 30, 2004].

Recent dialogue on the subject, perhaps engendered by my bill that would mandate the maintenance and expansion of such programs, helps move an issue of critical importance to our public education system and to our city to the forefront.

Mr. Wolf, however, misunderstands the requirements of my bill should it become law. My bill would require that each school district in the city have at least 10% of class seats or the current level if it is greater than 10%.The bill sets a floor and creates a mandate, neither of which exist today. If enacted, it would literally quadruple the number of seats in gifted and talented classrooms in our city.

How many of the Gifted and Talented seats in Mr. Wolf’s old District 10 were filled by bright students from outside the district because there were no such programs in that student’s home district? Were my bill to become law, that would no longer happen.

True, my bill does not create a vested right that there would be a seat in a Gifted and Talented Class for every child, as the law now does for students with Special Education needs. Frankly, that is a notion steeped in theory. The reality is that my bill would provide a seat for every qualified child, and do so in every neighborhood. Even in District 10.

Mr. Wolf, I am sure that the Renzulli’s of the world fear my bill and do not feel it promotes their anti-gifted and talented programs agenda. For the first time, that foolish agenda is being challenged. I welcome you to that fight. When it comes to underwear or education, one size does not fit all.

LEW FIDLER
City Council Member
46th District
Brooklyn

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