Letters to the Editor

McQuinn incorrect, social anthropology not being terminated

To the Daily:

I am writing in response to the column by Erin McQuinn titled "Lost majors, lost tiara" which appeared in the Jan. 23 edition of the Daily. McQuinn contends that the concentration in social anthropology has been terminated by the LSA Dean's Office. That contention is completely wrong.

The concentration in social anthropology still exists, the Dean's Office has made no plans to terminate it and, in fact, we have not even discussed this issue. Even in cases where there is a decision to terminate a concentration, all students currently enrolled in that concentration are "grandfathered" so that they can complete the concentration and do not have to change majors.

Robert Owen

LSA associate dean of undergraduate education

Raiji's defense of 'so-called right' is out of touch, unlike Bush

To the Daily:

I was absolutely disgusted by Manish Raiji's column concerning the 28th anniversary of Roe v. Wade ("The first day: An attack on 28 years of freedom," 1/23/01). He uses loaded language to try to obscure the fact that his logic defending a woman's so-called right to choose is hopelessly flawed and full of contradictions.

While Raiji acknowledges that an unborn child is certainly alive, his statement that abortion is "certainly not an issue of life, it's an issue of autonomy" is dead wrong. What makes this claim even more outrageous is that Raiji also claims to be personally opposed to abortion on moral grounds, i.e. that it is wrong to kill a defenseless unborn child.

People like Raiji who know something is wrong and then apologize for its existence and even defend it, are nothing short of cowards. If you believe abortion to be murder you have an obligation to stand up and say so and then do everything in your power to try to end it.

I was at the March for Life in Washington, D.C. along with 22 other pro-life students from the University this past Monday and we marched alongside tens of thousands of our fellow Americans from every background imaginable.

In regard to abortion, it is Raiji and other elitists like him who are the ones out of touch with most Americans, not President George W. Bush.

Andrew Shirvell

LSA junior President, students for life