Robert K. Sarlos
Professor Emeritus of Dramatic Art

Bruce Hildenbrand ’78
Mountain View

I would like to comment on the item about the passing of Dr. James Meyer in the winter edition of the magazine.

Dr. Meyer was my adviser, instructor and mentor from 1957 to 1963 when I was working on my B.S. degree in animal husbandry. My time spent attending UC Davis was a very enjoyable time of my life due in no small part to my association with Dr. Meyer, and several years ago I established a fund to help College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences transfer students, as I was.

I am distressed about the mention of what Dr. Meyer said or did not say and the context when meeting on the Quad with students upset over the use of force at a UC Berkeley Vietnam War protest. . . .

I feel Dr. Meyer met with the protesters because he was a nice guy and did not want any trouble on the campus and not that he agreed with what their protest was really about—that was to end the war with the Commies.

Captain Ed Carlson ’63
Mariposa

JOE CARLSON

This letter is being written in regard to a good friend and coach of mine at UC Davis who passed away several months ago, Mr. Joe Carlson. I do not think that the information that is provided in the magazine [winter ’03, “In Memoriam”] comes close to acknowledging the extreme value that Mr. Carlson provided to students, such as myself, and the value that he contributed to all of us, not just as a golf coach but as a great human being.

He was truly an outstanding individual, and I consider it to have been my honor to be able to say I was one of his team members and a friend of his. Individuals like Joe Carlson can never be replaced in value to the university. I am sure that I speak on behalf of the other team members coached by Joe Carlson, in that we will never forget the lessons he taught us, not only as a coach but as a friend.

Mark Hirsch ’77
Fremont

SNAPSHOT

I found your article titled “Student Snapshot” [winter ’03] as fascinating as it was disturbing. As a 1971 UC Davis alumnus, I lived through the turbulent years of the Vietnam War and the associated campus turmoil. Although much negative can be said about those times, many students did demonstrate a developed sense of social consciousness and a dedication to address social and environmental issues. With 75 percent of current freshmen concerned about “being very well off financially” and only 46 percent interested in “developing a meaningful philosophy of life,” I wonder what the future holds for UC Davis and the state of California. Davis has never been known as a bastion of liberalism, but it would be a pity to have it become more conservative and materialistic as time goes on. Safe is not always best, and financial security without a meaningful philosophy of life is a formula for social injustice.

David Holcombe ’71
via e-mail

NAMESAKES

Your description of Robert Malcolm, the namesake of Malcolm Hall [winter ’03], struck a strange chord with me. I suspect other alumni with UCD degrees in environmental fields might get the same sense of cognitive dissonance. Malcolm “reclaimed 5,000 acres of swamp and overflow land.” “Reclaimed” is such a strange word—it implies something that was either worthless or previously owned but then lost. Of course we know now that wetlands and flood plains are neither. They serve valuable ecological functions of flood storage and species habitat unless disturbed by human activity. And then the article continues: “During the 55 years . . . it flooded 27 times.” The instant reaction of any hydrologist, wetlands biologist or environmental engineer: “Well, what did you expect?!” I don’t know anything about Robert Malcolm and don’t intend any personal insult. However, the unmitigated hagiography seems awfully one-sided. Development that may have seemed heroic in an earlier era now raises serious questions in our modern times.

Paul Pickett ’84, M.A. ’89
Olympia, Wash.

DNA DATABASE

The cover article on Professor Edward Imwinkelried [“The Weight of Evidence,” winter ’03] might be best described as Orwellian. Professor Imwinkelried’s idea of a national DNA database represents an obvious and ultimate loss of individual freedom and identity. The concept that “a population-wide DNA database would combat both the appearance and reality of racism” has its intellectual basis in the Marxist concept of race-based justice. This exact idea has already found full fruition in totalitarian regimes from Nazi Germany to Stalin’s U.S.S.R.; does the concept differ substantially from “all must carry an identity card to guarantee justice for those of Aryan blood”? In either case, the appeal to “justice” for whatever group is the smokescreen for the overarching ambition of the intrusive state.

The writer’s disingenuous “but Imwinkelried is no right-winger” is historically inappropriate. In population numbers, techniques of individual tracking and atrocities against mankind, the Left side of collectivist states has far outstripped the puny efforts of the Nazis and Fascists. . . .

The modern American university’s inculcation into students of hatred of Western culture, of the abnegation of historical lessons hard won and of postmodern cultural relativism have left students predictably uncritical. I hope alumni other than myself are less so. Perhaps we should keep in mind a quote from the great Czech author, a survivor of communism, Milan Kundera:

The struggle of man against power is the struggle of memory against forgetting.

Henry C. Walther ’77, M.D. ’81
via e-mail

EXPERTS

As an English major and hard-working free-lance writer, I was disheartened to read your article “Experts Among Us” [winter ’03]. It managed to be simultaneously chipper and bleak.

So this is “the moment for humanities”—a world where people who love history and literature have to settle for jobs at corporations laying off thousands, while achieving questionable social good? (Agilent, the company named in your first paragraph, axed 4,000 workers last year.)

Shakespeare scholars in human resources? Give us a little ray of hope. Applied humanities? Please, tell us about people who actually applied their humanity—the ideals they nourished while reading all those good books. Tell us that in all those hours spent in the Quad mind-melding with Ralph Waldo Emerson and the Bard, we weren’t just getting ready to show the CEOs of 2003 we were good enough for them.

What I’m saying is, I want to hear from the 46 percent of people in your “Student Snapshot Poll” who went to college to “develop a meaningful philosophy of life.” Did it work?

John Gorenfeld ’98
via e-mail

COMMUNITY

Good thoughts expressed in the article by Jan Ferris Heenan [winter ’03, “Call to Community”]. I’m well aware that free speech at UCD took a major holiday recently. I hope root causes are identified and addressed.

“Tension between groups” is mentioned. Doesn’t the fostering of groups (often competitive) based on race actually cause a “pulling apart”? Don’t the comments attributed to Vicky Vang point the finger directly at the university environment? The inequalities she mentioned “out there” are really magnified in there—the university community. She never felt persecuted until two years ago—at UCD.

The cure? One group of respectful human beings enjoying the best of all cultures.

Bruce C. Anderson ’65
Nampa, Idaho
via e-mail

VALLEJO

I’m a graduate of Davis and a lifelong resident of Vallejo and I take offense at the characterization of Vallejo as a ghetto in Ms. Hawes’ article [winter ’03, “A Winner in Life’s Race”]. Vallejo is a diverse city of over 100,000 people, with all the problems that come with a city of that size, but to classify the city as a ghetto is simply wrong.

Michael Cheap ’76
via e-mail

We did not mean to characterize Vallejo as a ghetto—only the neighborhood in which NCAA Woman of the Year Tanisha Silas grew up. It was the word Silas, herself, used to describe her home neighborhood of drug dealers and prostitutes.