Great article about SJSU baseball coach Sam Piraro. He really is an institution at San José State and in college baseball. Go Spartans!
Phillip Ammar, '85 Radio/TV/Film
Excellent story on CHP Officer Mike Remmel. It hit home for me -- I had a similar accident and, now in recovery after five weeks in a coma, have a similar attitude of accepting what life deals us and moving on.
Andrew Garrett, '99 Health Science
I was impressed by your article on writing resources and the state of writing at San José State. I teach 100w, Scientific Writing for Biology Students. I would like to propose providing some space in WSQ to showcase some of the best writing in biology. There could be a competition and prize money.
Contrary to the perceptions of some, scientific writing is often creative as well as focused. For example, I have a student who submitted 14 verses of Haiku in response to one assignment. Please let me know if this idea fits within the scope of your publication.
Josh Mackie, Lecturer Biological Sciences
As an accounting major, my grammar skills are somewhat limited, so I enjoyed the article "Struggling for Words" very much. Wouldn't the gerund phrase highlighted on P. 15 of the text include the word "well," since it is a complement or modifier? I'm sure my fourth-grade teacher, Sister Frederick Ann, would have included it.
Jerome R. Leite, '75 Business
You are correct, sir. Somewhere Sister Frederick Ann is smiling. -- Ed.
In the first paragraph of "Struggling for Words," the author indicated that the word "these" in the phrase "these students" is a pronoun. "These" can serve as a pronoun when it stands alone, but in this context, I believe it acts as a determiner, specifically a demonstrative determiner. It didn't take my seventh-grader long to find this error either.
Todd Anderson, '91 Civil Engineering
We bow to the eagle eyes of Anderson and his seventh-grader and thank them for catching this error. -- Ed.
In "Struggling for Words," Professor of English Jonathan Lovell laments the effects of Prop 13 on education. If we went to a voucher system and dismantled the current government monopoly of K-12, we'd get a lot more education for a lot less money. Charter schools prove this. Parochial schools prove this. We spend more than half the budget on K-12. Money is not the problem. Teachers' unions that lobby against vouchers are the problem.
Craig Loup, '70
While the state of public education is deplorable, Prop 13 is certainly not one of the causes. Assessed values, tax receipts and school funding have all increased at faster rates than inflation since its passage in 1978. The provisions of Prop 13, which create a more stable tax base, will provide a relatively "soft" landing during the recession, as not all assessed values will fall from the grossly inflated market values of recent years. Without Prop 13, the decrease in property tax revenues would be even more dramatic than what we're actually seeing.
Pete Conrad, '82 Business
Re: Your dorm room shot from the 1970s and present-day comparisons -- dude's mustache would be replaced with a "soul patch," hanging plant replaced with a hydroponics system (or a '70s ChiaPet).
Edward Jonathans, '02 Kinesiology
Excellent content and design of this last issue of SJSU Washington Square. It surely projects the significant value of SJSU as an exceptional educational institution, and as an immeasurable asset to Silicon Valley. Kudos to you!
Your column (on print vs. pixels) made me confirm the ceremony of reading the morning newspaper and spending time snuggling up to a favorite magazine. The computer is a marvelous device, but lacks the tactile experience of printed matter. I like to view a double-page spread of a newspaper and tear out a column that I want to read again. I don't feel comfortable confined to the screen of a laptop or desktop computer.
George Coakley, Lecturer, Journalism and Mass Communications
Some of us haven't graduated to the web. So please continue sending your print version of WSQ. More comfy in a chair. P.S. I want to share "Struggling for Words" with a new teacher and my granddaughter. Thanks!
Barbara Fleming, '48
I'll be happy to have WSQ online when the changeover is effected.
George Carter, former SJSU Director of Planned Giving
Re: English Professor Emeritus John Pollock's letter (Spring '09) on alumna Karen Ristau's visit to the Pope (Winter '08) -- I have always enjoyed the time I spent with Professor Pollock, both as his advisee and student. Yet I cannot agree with his assessment that the Catholic Church has a "blatant disregard for principles like separation of church and state and equal treatment under the law."
The ideas of church and state being separate does not mean that the people in government are not to be influenced by their religious dogmas. Instead it outlaws the direct creation of laws by religious institutions. Institutions must convince the voters to agree with their views in order to influence public opinion. If one wishes to win the vote, then one must convince the masses. This is a majority-rule democracy; that is the American way.
Joshua Resnick, '06 English
We’d like to hear from you. SJSU WSQ welcomes letters to the editor regarding stories in its pages. Letters accepted for publication may be edited for clarity or space and may not necessarily reflect the views of San José State University.
Send correspondence to WSQ Editor / SJSU / One Washington Square / San José, CA 95192-0005 or via email.
Read Washington Square Summer 2009.
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