Letters

Is Reed Too “Far Out”?

Comment

I usually find at least one article in the magazine that interests me, but that was not the case with the most recent issue [June 2011]. The articles were eclectic, to put it mildly, and none of them were interesting to me. I looked at the picture of the parade at a reunion and I thought how different Reed is today from when I was a student in the fifties. I could not imagine myself participating in this type of what I would have to call a spectacle.

I received an excellent education at Reed, but I have to say that I feel very little attachment to Reed. I felt that Reed was a unique place, then, but judging from what I saw in this issue of the Reed magazine, it strikes me as being really “far out” today. I know I am far too conservative for the present Reed College.

—John W. Thompson ’55

Lake Oswego, Oregon

Editor's Note: Sorry you found nothing of interest in the last issue. We try hard to offer something for classmates of every vintage and persuasion, from the left of Hugo Chavez to the right of Attila the Hun (and there are alumni at both ends). We are probably guilty of playing up Reed’s quirky side—after all, bike jousting makes for better copy than biophysics. But don’t judge the college by its pageantry. Judge it by the rigor of its curriculum, the dedication of its professors, the brilliance of its students, and the achievements of its alumni. The clothes, the hairstyles, and the tattoos have changed; the essentials, I suspect, have not.

Demographics out of Joint

Comment

The worries about the Reed student body being insufficiently diverse are motivated by many good desires for the college and for society as a whole. I agree with Joel Batterman ’10 [Letters, June 2011] that missing out on a variety of perspectives impoverishes the Reed community.

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Reed should be deconstructing and shattering these categories, not using them to chase some kind of percentaged ideal, as if students with particular backgrounds are meant to be landscape elements or pinches of spice. Sometimes the language of targeted recruitment sounds quite patronizing, hardly the tactic to invite people who are looking to transcend centuries of racism. I am reminded of a radical feminist adage from the 1970s, “You cannot break your chains by polishing them.”

—Scott Rausch ’92

Seattle, Washington

A Quest for Clarity

Comment

The article “The Quest Goes Live” (Reed, March 2011) states that the Quest board’s decision to launch reedquest.org was bolstered by a referendum showing a majority of students in support. This is the complete opposite of what happened—with one or two minor exceptions, a majority of voting students (in total and from all four years individually) rejected the idea both as a whole and with respect to every given type of article. Senate and the Quest simply did not take any action in response to the vote. Also, it is not true that the Quest remained “stubbornly confined to print” for 98 years or that the Wild Wild Quest changed this fact even during last semester: various other websites have existed for brief periods in the past, and sin.reed.edu/quest/ was already up and running smoothly many months before reedquest was ever announced.

—Sam Shemitz ’11

Portland, Oregon

Editor's Note: We goofed. Only 40 percent of students supported an online Quest; 27 percent were opposed; and 27 percent neutral. This constitutes a plurality, not a majority. (Where are the poli sci majors when you need them?) We are sorry for this misstatement and for giving earlier Quest websites short shrift.

Who Needs a New Building?

Comment

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—Susan Subak ’82

Washington, D.C.

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