LETTERS: High rise living is not so bad

To the Editor: I am a resident of High Rise South. I chose to live in the high rises (I was not forced.), and my friends and I registered for the community living option, so we have three rooms together on my hall. The bedrooms ARE small, but not any more unreasonable than my room in the Quadrangle last year. I don't feel my reasons for living in the high rises are "superficial." Maybe I do pay more for rent, but it is extremely convenient not to have to split utility bills at the end of the month or look over an electric bill and decide who watched TV more or whose computer was on the longest. And I don't think I am any less mature or responsible for feeling this way. In a way, I am more mature and responsible, because I know my own limits. As for Brown's other comments -- again, for the convenience of it, I paid extra to move in early. By doing this, numerous carts were available, there were no lines for the elevator and I moved all of my things in well before my allotted parking time expired. A friend who lives off campus now told me tht his apartment isn't any more sound-proof than the high rises, and another friend said that, like in the high rises, the rent on her off-campus house is also due up-front. Roommates CAN get sick of each other, but not because of living in the high rises. Those who will get sick of each other will get sick of each other whether they live in Hill House, in the Quad or in off-campus houses? In addition, I have found the staff in my building, for the most part, to be helpful and courteous. When our bathtub clogged at 8 a.m., a maintenance man was at our door within five minutes. He stopped the problem from becoming an emergency and then called a plumber to really fix the drain. I do not know of any landlord who would handle a problem that quickly. Shira Tehrani College '99 Looking at U.S. policy To the Editor: Seth Lasser has missed the point completely. His column "?the more things stay the same" (DP, 2/25/97) may serve as a forum for his own personal political views, but it totally mischaracterizes the nature of U.S. foreign policy. To suggest that U.S. foreign policy has not undergone massive change in the past five, 10, 20 or 50 years is like trying to read a map with one's eyes closed. Although Lasser may not agree with specific policies, U.S. foreign policy is hardly the result of a monolithic agenda. In reality -- as the result of our liberal democratic system -- U.S. foreign policy is in a constant state of change due to political, economic, cultural and other forces within our society as well as in response to external challenges and opportunities. As a matter of fact, I happen to agree that U.S. policy towards Cuba lacks coherence. However, it is important to understand the forces that lead to this result in order to accurately characterize the policy decision. It is easy to set up a straw man to knock down. It is much harder to come up with policies that adequately balance the needs of widely disparate stakeholders. Notably lacking from Lasser's column is any suggestion of how the policies that he criticizes might be more effectively implemented or to whose detriment and benefit these changes may occur. Demagoguery simply cannot make up for clear and reasoned thinking. Daniel Auker MBA, Wharton '98 Job hunt uncertainty To the Editor: I am writing in regard to Annie Brown's guest column "Looking at an uncertain next year," (DP, 2/25/97). I graduated as an English major from Brandeis University in 1993, with many of the same uncertainties ably evoked by Brown. In the intervening years, I have been a teacher to students spanning the spectrum from kindergarten to beyond the University, worked for a poetry magazine, worked in a bookshop, met many of the writers whose work I studied in my thesis, got a dog, got engaged, survived an apartment fire, traveled across the country and through the Chunnel, spent entire days reading (sans syllabus) and just generally felt the slow, indifferent passage of time. Now, back in the frenzied world of on-campus recruiting, resume slots and exams, a fruitful time of uncertainty provides a useful perspective. I wish Brown well with her own fruitful uncertainty, and thank her for reminding me why it took a little while to get here. Jared Barbin Law '99 Nobel physicist visit To the Editor: We appreciate your thorough front page coverage of the Provost's Cup faculty/student basketball game. While we understand that a 91- year-old nobel laureate physicist is nowhere near as interesting as the three-point shooting skills of the vice provost, we hoped to see some coverage of Hans Bethe's recent visit to the University. Hans served as the director of theoretical physics at Los Alamos, N.M. during the Manhattan Project and is still widely recognized as one the greatest practicing physicists of the century. He has also been an outspoken proponent of nuclear non-proliferation for the past fifty years. Given the stature of this intellectual giant we find your lack of coverage to be remiss. Jacob Dubroff SEAS '97, CAS '97 Earl Weinstein CAS '97 Noah Krasner CAS '97