Letters to the Editor

THE PEOPLE’S VOICE
A note of thanks for the superb January issue featuring diverse topics. I was especially pleased to see the Looking Back segment by Pamela Fruge. Her coverage of The People’s Voice and other student-run journals presented both inspiring history and a challenging contemporary issue. Why is one of UCSD’s prized campus publications dormant? Certainly there are staff or faculty who would be its advisors; if not, I would certainly be willing.

Student activism was the best part of many of my memories, including the late nights Fruge described, “creating pages by hand with border tape.” There were many campus leaders who could attest to those antiquated methods of publishing our widely read articles with “ancient tools of the trade.” Art Bolton, James Curtis, Lenny Edwards and Alma Key were among my predecessors who worked on typesetters and light boards. And it was an honor to have our efforts included in a retrospective about the minority presence at UCSD along side important names like Angela Davis, Charles Thomas, and Joe Watson.

I cannot believe that students in the twenty-first century are not engaged in healthy debate with their peers through the medium of publication. I will never forget seeing a copy of The People’s Voice in an exhibit at UC Berkeley 10 years after I had graduated. It was a great honor. I hope the current students, no matter how small in number, will take the steps to document their experience in mediums like The People’s Voice. I shudder to think what their absence in the record of campus history will mean to future students.

Iset Anuakan (Robyn Broughton), Warren ’85

YEEN BY THOV
I can answer Richard Stevens’ question about the YEEN cartoons in the APIS building stairwells. They were painted by a classmate of ours. The signature “Thov” was a phonetic reversal of his last name, Voth.

I have another question for the class of ’78: does anyone still have a copy of the 1978 Revelle graduation address by Theodore Geisel? I remember receiving a copy of the rhyming speech by Dr. Seuss at my husband’s graduation, but it was lost years ago. I’d love to read it again.

Susan Stanford McVey, Muir ’77

ATHLETIC SCHOLARSHIPS
I write to express my appreciation to the current student body for recently voting in massive numbers to approve a fee increase for Triton Athletics, which I have been following closely online. My viewpoint is admittedly biased as I am a former men’s basketball player and UCSD intramural and athletic department employee.

This vote is a stunning statement by the current student body of UCSD that they would like to see more of a campus life beyond academics and want to fully support an athletic tradition that they can cheer on while undergraduates, and continue to follow as alumni. As anyone affiliated with student government in any university around the country knows, getting 42 percent of the students to vote giving themselves free beer would be amazing, and for the students to turn out in such numbers to vote to raise their own fees is unheard of. These students appreciate and understand the benefits of intercollegiate athletics, and are willing to pay to bring those benefits to the UCSD community.

Unfortunately, not all of those in the UCSD community are as concerned about improving UCSD. [Their] slippery slope argument that fully funding UCSD at D2 levels will lead to USC-style big-time athletics is ridiculous when given a moment’s thought or analysis. I do not see the academic reputations of Stanford or the flagship schools of the UC system, UC Berkeley or UCLA, suffering as a result of their membership in the Pac-10 and success in all sports at the highest level.

I look forward to UCSD increasing its national profile by dominating D2 athletics in every sport now that it has the ability to compete on an even playing field with its D2 brethren.

Lincoln Combs, Warren College ’94

SUN GOD SAGA
Indeed, the Sun God is a religious symbol: the totem of a cult whose ideology trumps reason and tradition. Here is our anthem (sung roughly to the tune of “This Land is Your Land”):

There is but One God
The Chicken Sun God
A Really Fun God
A Naked Bun God
If you want a Good Bod
Worship the Sun God
UC-SD is for you and me

Paul Tucker Ph.D. ’99

COUPLES

Thank you for the fun article on campus romances; I'm sure there are many more couplings out there that we dont' know about. Offhand, I can think of two couples who were my friends at the time: Peter Corrigan and Karen Bergan, both Revelle '88; and Milo Aukerman, Muir '86 and Robin Andreasen, Revelle '91.  Fun memories; the social aspect is what I remember best from my years there.

Thanks again,

Pam Middings, Revelle '89

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