ustxtxb_obs_1971_01_29_50_00022-00000_000.pdf

Spanish, Botany, Microbiology, Physics and Linguistics. 1 should think that, rather than “empire-building” with all its dire connotations, one would regard his accomplishments as a splendid case of university-building. You might, as well, have examined the credentials of the more than 100 faculty members Dr. Silber either recruited or helped to recruit. Doing these minimal investigations into the record, the obvious question is: who at U.T. did better? Surely you would do the State of Texas, not to mention the university community, more justice by recognizing the patent merits of Dr. Silber than by nudging and fiddling with innuendo. Richard M. Zaner, Department of Philosophy, U.T. Austin, 78712. Unfortunate situation I would like to express my sincere disappointment with the academic situation at the University of Texas at . Austin. It is most unfortunate when a vibrant and exciting teacher, like Dr. William Arrowsmith, is forced to resign due to a mindless minority. I attended a classics course under Dr. Arrowsmith several years ago when I was working on my Ph.D. degree and it was one of the most exciting and informative courses I have ever taken. I have always been interested in Greek drama and Dr. Arrowsmith made it come alive! This past fall I arranged Lysistrata for a production at Incarnate Word College and it was very well received. Dr. 22 The Texas Observer r I z’ Since 1866 The Place in Austin GOOD FOOD GOOD BEER 1607 San Jadnto GR 7-4171 EDUCATORS . . . CLERGY If you’ve already taken your group to Europe, why not plan on seeing SOUTH AMERICA IN 1971? Your trip is free as an organizer on our in-depth “Viking Tour” of Latin America. Write or phone us for complete information: DALLAS TRAVEL, INC. 211 N. Ervay Bldg. Dallas, Texas 75206 Arrowsmith gave me some excellent suggestions for the script even though I was only in his class for one semester. Truly if the present trend in education at Austin continues, then I really fear for all educators everywhere! Please do all you can to help the embattled leaders who want an educated people rather than a trained puppet! Charles Myler, Ph.D., , chairman, Department of Speech and Drama, St. Mary’s University, San Antonio, Tex. 78228. Hook-em During the week of December 14-18, 1970, the Fifth Texas Symposium on Relativistic Astrophysics was held at The University of Texas. Distinguished men of science from all parts of the United States and from many countries of the world attended. Following the meeting, Professor John Wheeler of Princeton University, winner of the Albert Einstein prize and Enrico Fermi award, met with Professor Kip Thorne of Caltech and Professor Charles Misner of the University of Maryland to complete the second half of their textbook, Gravitation. They used my office in the Physics Building as their workshop. One day during lunch Professor Wheeler asked if Roy Kerr, who is a professor of mathematics at the university, was at this campus when he discovered an important new solution of Einstein’s gravitational field quations, now known throughout the world as the Kerr solution or Kerr metric. “Yes,” I said, “it was during his first year at Texas, when he was a visiting associate professor of mathematics.” “Did they light up the tower for him?” he asked with more interest. “No,” I had to reply, “they only do that for the football team.” Alfred Schild, Ashbel Smith Professor of Physics, Director, Center for Relativity Theory, University of Texas at Austin, Visiting Professor 1970-71, Nordic Institute for Theoretical Atomic Physics Flim Flam About Mr. Mewhinney’s “Mythical Big Thicket” advertisement: Senator Yarborough, Justice Douglas and Dempsie Henley cannot only do sixth grade arithmetic, they also have the sense of distinguish a mixed hardwood forest of tremendous diversity and superb wildlife habitat from an early sterile slash pine plantation. A forest is not necessarily equivalent to any other forest. \(Whom does Mr. be the same acreage of trees as there was before the lumbermen started in, but it certainly isn’t of the same ecological quality, just as a prairie is not the same as a cornfield, although both are covered with grasses of sorts. Mr. Mewhinney may not be able to see the forest for the profits, but any clear-sighted person can. How stupid he must think us, to pay good money for a silly piece of film flam like that ad! Daniel E. Willard, 2217 West Lawn, Madison, Wisconsin. Pulp pine thicket Hubert Mewhinney’s paid advertisement in the Dec. 25 issue of The Texas Observer is one more proof of the old adage: Figures may not lie, but liars do figure. When conservationists rightly assert that the Big Thicket has been diminished in size, they do not mean that is has been turned into a bare prairie \(though in many cases that is that the mixed pine-hardwood forests have been either severely reduced in luxuriance and botanical value or else destroyed to make room for pulp pine. This is exactly what has happened to untold tens of thousands of acres of the original Big Thicket, and this is what has reduced its size. Who cares how many acres of woods exist where the Big Thicket once existed in its magnificence, if these woods are mere pine plantations, devoid of the many plant, bird and animal species which can find ecological niches in a forest as diverse as the original Thicket wilderness? Pete Gunter, 1903 Locksley Lane, Denton, Tex. 76201. P.S. It may be of interest to Texas Observer readers that after his recent trip to the Big Thicket, Professor Thomas Eisner, of the Cornell University Biology Department has formed an Ad Hoc Committee To Save The Big Thicket, consisting of a number of nationally prominent biologists. Does anyone think he would bother to put forth the amount of effort involved in this if the Big Thicket were not of great biological value? I doubt it. Pete Gunter, 1903 Locksley Lane, Denton, Tex. 76201. More You may think you know your reader, but letters over the past six or twelve weeks should convince you otherwise. I had decided to let my subscription lapse because of the fact that your writers were bereft of appropriate adjectives, substituting in their stead inappropriate gross expressions. Since you publicly disavowed the practice, I will resubscribe. Should you have a change of heart, kindly return my check. Somehow you equate liberality with filth. It need not be, you know. John J. Miniter, 13511 Heartside Place, Dallas, Tex. 75234. The Observer’s stated policy is to edit out gratuitous “dirty” words. Ed.