‘Watergate and Vietnam’

The New York Sun editorial of June 2, 2005, “Watergate and Vietnam,” praises President Nixon for his efforts to put an end to the Vietnam War and implies that the press needs to be careful about criticizing a president when the nation is at war because it might interfere with his “boldness.” I presume the editorial implies that the press today should be careful as to how they deal with President Bush and the Iraq war, and his “boldness.”

In an address I delivered to an audience of psychologists in 1976 at Adelphi University, titled “Deception and Fragmentation, Watergate and Vietnam,” I looked at matters differently. I argued that a major problem America in the Vietnam/Watergate years was the lies and deception characteristic of government officials so that it was difficult for the populace to know anything resembling the truth and, hence, decide an appropriate course of action.

The question for me is: Do we need “boldness,” or do we need an airing of all the facts? Many have criticized this administration for not airing all the facts of the Iraq war. We need “boldness,” but we also need facts. Not until we know all the relevant facts can we determine whether a course of action is bold or folly.

MURRAY KRIM
Manhattan

‘Disposition Emerges’

The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (20 U.S.C. S 1232g; 34 CFR Part 99), or the Buckley Amendment, protects the privacy of most student academic records, guarding against public disclosure by college officials or administrators without permission of the student. We therefore were astonished by the letter from Dean Deborah Shanley [“Disposition Emerges,” June 7, 2005], which almost certainly indicates that Brooklyn College personnel violated the Buckley Amendment protections of two Brooklyn undergraduates. The students had a disagreement with a professor over her imposing her political views in the classroom, which led initially to an investigation of the “disposition” of one (i.e., a college-defined measure of his attitude and commitment to social justice), and ultimately to an accusation of plagiarism against both – an accusation that the students allege to be politically motivated and without merit.

Ms. Shanley’s letter stated that these two students “admitted” to the undergraduate dean that they committed plagiarism and “at their request” redid their assignments. The meeting in question included only Dean Ellen Belton, Professor Priya Parmar, and each of the students. Such a meeting in and of itself violated the college’s official procedures regarding the handling of academic integrity cases. In further violation of established procedures, Ms. Belton denied requests from each of the students that they be allowed to tape, bring in a neutral witness, or summon a lawyer for the meeting. In fact, Ms. Belton made these statements while the tape recorder was live, before the students turned off the machine at her instruction. A college official thus intentionally limited the students’ ability to defend themselves against misrepresentation.

As the students feared, such a “misinterpretation” occurred. Ms. Belton subsequently claimed that the students had “admitted” to plagiarism. According to an email response forwarded to us by one of the students, the students reiterated to Ms. Belton that they had made no such statements in the meeting. Nor did they “request” to redo their assignment.

As faculty of Brooklyn College, it troubles us that the college did not afford these students their right to due process, and that college personnel are the only plausible source for the false, damaging, and confidential information about these students that was disseminated by Ms. Shanley’s letter, which apparently violates their Buckley amendment rights. Students who protest the improper classroom behavior of a professor do not lose their federally protected rights.

ROBERT DAVID JOHNSON
Professor, history
Brooklyn College
Brooklyn
This letter was also signed by a professor of history, Margaret L. King, and a professor of geology, David Seidemann.

What Is a Bodega?

The New York Sun interview with Jose Fernandez, president of the Bodega Association of the United States, is one reason why I enjoy reading the Sun [“The Bodega Association’s President on the Rapid Growth of His Program,” Daniela Gerson, New York, June 6, 2005]. However, the word “bodega” was certainly well known in New York 10 years ago, when he began his association.

“Bodega” was Spanish for a wine cellar or wine shop. In Cuba, “bodega” began to be used for small shops that sold much more than wine. I found the word “bodega” used in Thomas Gage’s 1648 book about his travels to the New World. “Bodegas (grocery stores)” appears in “The WPA Guide to New York City” (1939).

BARRY POPIK
Manhattan

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