‘Fetus Is Found in Park Slope Toilet’

It is disturbing that the author of the article “Fetus Is Found in Park Slope Hospital Toilet” [Jeremy Smerd, New York, May 20, 2005] chose to speak to Elisabeth Benjamin, the “director of the reproductive rights project” for the ACLU rather than speak to a director of a crisis pregnancy center. Had he done so, he might have gained a different perspective.

The directors of crisis pregnancy centers offer life-affirming options such as adoption and prenatal care and assistance. By the way, the dead “fetus” was a baby and somebody’s daughter, granddaughter, niece and/or cousin. That dead babies are still left in toilets in America in the 21st century speaks volumes about our society and its values.

ALICE LEMOS
Woodside, N.Y.

‘Chairman Shortell’

As President of Brooklyn College, I sharply disagree with the offensive opinions expressed by Professor Timothy Shortell [“Chairman Shortell,” Editorial, May 18, 2005].

While his right to express these views is protected, what is not protected is the injection of views like these into the classroom or into any administrative responsibilities he might assume as chair of the sociology department.

I have convened a committee of three high-ranking Brooklyn College officials and asked them to investigate the situation and report back to me. While there are no specific complaints filed against Professor Shortell, this review is intended to preserve the rights of all involved.

CHRISTOPH M. KIMMICH
President
Brooklyn College
Brooklyn

Timothy Shortell, the faithphobic sociologist now chairman elect of his department at Brooklyn College, will indeed have a “bully pulpit” in tenure and promotion decisions and in student affairs as well. So “bully” in fact that the college is being more than a little disingenuous in assuring the public that his opinions will be only “advisory” on these matters.

Brooklyn’s chairmen are as central to personnel actions as the candidates themselves. Chairs are ex-officio chairs of the department appointments committees that make the initial recommendation for or against tenure. Chairs write confidential evaluations, never seen by the candidates themselves, for four other committees that vote their opinions in the process. Two of those four bodies are made up exclusively of chairs, who present orally to one another their candidates’ cases and field questions about it. A third committee, made up only of faculty members, hears and queries chairs as part of its deliberations.

In making their own recommendations to the CUNY chancellor, college presidents almost always follow the lead that these committees give them. Presidential dissents invariably trigger explosions of rage from chairmen that can divide campuses for years to come and from which no one profits. No one wants these situations to arise, particularly administrators who are always trying to build positive resumes of their own.

The allegedly “advisory” role as a chairman is therefore far more decisive than the college seems willing to concede.

PAULA SUTTER FICHTNER
Professor Emerita
Brooklyn College
Brooklyn

‘Trump’s Bid’

Re “Trump’s Bid To Build Taller Twins Is Panned by 9/11 Families,” Julie Satow, New York, May 19, 2005]: On the morning of September 11, 2001, Donald Trump’s words came into my mind. A year earlier, I had read his book, “The America We Deserve,” in which he warned of terrorist attacks on U.S. soil.

It seems that Mr. Trump is one of those rare individuals whose insight, foresight, and clarity of thought we need to trust and follow. Not only is his plan for rebuilding the Twin Towers to look exactly as they did, but a story taller, the most logical plan, but with Mr. Trump at the helm, it will also be the most secure. That anyone is not supporting Mr. Trump’s involvement in this project I find utterly amazing.

CONSTANTINOS E. SCAROS
Cliffside Park, N.J.

‘Galloway’s Comic Interlude’

I refer to R. Emmett Tyrrell Jr.’s facetious dismissal of George Galloway’s comments before the Senate committee [“Galloway’s Comic Interlude,” Opinion, May 19,2005].

Had Mr. Galloway been attempting to justify the Bush Administration’s rank abuses of power, he would doubtless have been lauding the speech as a wonderful piece of impassioned political oratory – which appears to be an extinct art in the United States’ two elected houses.

Had Mr. Galloway been ridiculing the somewhat Himalayan evidence stacked against Mr. Bush and his cohorts, or castigating the misdeeds of the Clintons, he might have been congratulating the courage of his conviction in appearing voluntarily, facing down his accusers and destroying their case in such an emphatic fashion.

MATTHEW OAKLEY
Singapore

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