Letters to the Editor
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
‘Engel “Disappointed”
by Ford Forum for Mearsheimer’
In regard to the Sun’s report about an upcoming Columbia University speaking event, the panel discussion in question is focused on the important issue of academic freedom, the vigorous exercise of which has been central to our nation’s leadership in higher education for decades [New York, “Engel ‘Disappointed’ by Ford Forum for Mearsheimer,” September10,2007].
That is why a year ago, as part of a long-standing commitment to this issue, the foundation made a $100,000 grant to the Heyman Center for Humanities at Columbia University to conduct empirical research on academic freedom.
The aim of that research is to strengthen the quality of discussion on a topic too often addressed with rhetoric andhyperbole.
As we made clear to a Sun reporter last week, once a grant like this is approved, decisions about the implementation of research and the selection of speakers for scholarlydiscussionsremain with the grantee, in this case Columbia University and an interdisciplinary team of scholars led by the Heyman Center.
Every grant that we make reflects the core values of the foundation — strengthening democratic values, reducing poverty and injustice, promoting international cooperation, and advancing humanachievement.
This grant on academic freedom is no exception. One point in your article we do concur with: American universities must continue to be places where free speech can be exercised, not just talked about.
ALFRED IRONSIDE Director of communications Ford Foundation New York, N.Y.
‘A Wunderkind Shows His Range’
There is no umlaut, two dots over a letter, for the “u” in wunderkind [Arts&Letters, “A Wünderkind Shows His Range,” August28,2007].
German words are full of umlaute but wunder, or miracle, isn’t one of them .
Placing dots over the “u” in wunder is like playing sharp onnatural.
HORST BRAKEL New York, N.Y.
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