University Quality
Editor: The proposed merger of the University of Maryland at Baltimore and the University of Maryland Baltimore County has engendered many comments in the pages of The Sun, the most recent being those of Parris Glendening (Feb. 22).
Much has been made of the fact that the proposed merger would create a Carnegie I-type institution with a focus on the life sciences, health and technology.
As a faculty member of the University of Maryland School of Medicine, I support the proposed merger. But as a member of an advisory committee of the National Institutes of Health, I know that the Carnegie I-type designation has little, if any, significance.
The National Institutes of Health is the world's largest source of research and training funds for the life sciences and depends upon numerous advisory committees to recommend which researchers and institutions receive those funds. These advisory committees neither know nor care if an institution has a Carnegie I-type designation.
What matters to these committees is the quality of the individual faculty and students and the resources available at these institutions. Simply repeating mantra-like that the proposed merger will create a Carnegie I-type institution will not miraculously attract research monies and create a major research university.
What will create a major research institution is a significant and continuing commitment of public funds to attract, support and retain outstanding faculty and students. The loss of outstanding university faculty due to state budget cuts has already been reported in The Sun.
To prevent a further loss of outstanding faculty and students and to fulfill the vision espoused by Mr. Glendening and others for a major public research university in Baltimore, a significant and enduring increase in state funds is required, rather than the current decrease now being felt throughout the University of Maryland.
ames B. Kaper.
Baltimore.
The writer is professor of medicine at the University of Maryland School of Medicine.
Naval Service
Editor: The Sun's Feb. 24 article about candidates in the 3rd congressional district stated that I served in the Persian Gulf conflict.
While I take great pride in my military service and the fact that I served in the Persian Gulf during the Iran-Iraq tanker wars and am eligible for the National Defense Ribbon for recent service in the Naval Reserves, I was not physically in the Persian Gulf during Operation Desert Shield/Desert Storm.
% Mark Kevin White. Baltimore.
Their Own Words
Editor: The chair of the Maryland Religious Coalition for Abortion Rights (Rev. Matthew McNaught, letters, Feb. 3) should consult Planned Parenthood's 1990-1993 three-year plan.
Its authors note recent studies which have "shown that the incidence of post-procedural trauma for abortion clients may be as high as 91 percent of all cases."
They then acknowledge that "recent unpublished reports from the Alan Guttmacher Institute indicate that the scope of the problem may have been accurately tabulated in these studies." The rest of the document indicates that Planned Parenthood intends to try to defuse this "volatile political dilemma" by proving that it's not abortion but the pro-life movement that is creating this trauma.
Planned Parenthood is right in calling post-abortion trauma a "volatile . ... dilemma," but it's a dilemma of the heart and mind -- not merely a "political" game-piece in the abortion wars.
The Roman Catholic Church has reached out to grieving aborted women for years and years through "Project Rachel" post-abortion counseling.
And no matter how much the country's largest abortion provider, Planned Parenthood, and the Religious Coalition for Abortion Rights try to wish away post-abortion trauma because it's bad for abortion politics, our experience counseling thousands of women tells us it will not go away until abortions are no more.
Helen M. Alvare.
Washington.
The writer is director of planning and information for the National Conference of Catholic Bishops' Secretariat for Pro-Life Activities.
Turned Off
Editor: I want to thank Baltimore's United Artists Cable for enriching my life.
After almost a year of lackluster programming, complacent if not rude customer service, numerous billing errors - and of course those rates - I revolted and had it disconnected.
Yes I admit at first I suffered some withdrawal pangs. I missed wildly flipping through 60 channels of reruns and half-hour commercials.
But then something amazing happened. With only five channels to watch I became bored and turned it off. This last week I have picked up a book, cleaned out a closet and even taken a walk.
Thanks again, United Artist Cable.
R.K. Stevens.
Baltimore.
Math
Editor: Gallimaufry on Jan. 27 was an example of the sort of attitude that has made our educational system so difficult to improve.
The seventh grader who was chosen for a Gifted and Talented mathematics class is probably a pretty bright young lady who is finding GT mathematics a little tough. She should be encouraged to use her potential to its fullest in every academic area and that includes mathematics.
That she should take Algebra I twice is absurd; that she should be discouraged from aiming toward calculus (surely one of the greatest human intellectual achievements) is even more ridiculous. Twelfth-grade mathematics need not be calculus; there should be alternatives like statistics available to all qualified students.
Encouraging young women to give up on mathematics too soon, we lock them out of exciting careers in medicine, science, business and even library science.
Why would we encourage a young girl, who qualified for GT Math, to repeat Algebra I? Why not use the challenge to get her to see that she can succeed, even if it takes some work? There is enormous satisfaction for her in that.
! Martha J. Siegel.
Towson.
The writer is a professor of mathematics at Towson State University.
Religious Groups in Schools
Editor: In her letter to the editor (Feb. 14), Marilyn Pauline Robbins wrongly named my organization (Campus Crusade for Christ) as working in the middle schools and high schools of Baltimore.
For clarification, Campus Crusade for Christ is not active in any Baltimore City or Baltimore County middle schools or high schools. We work only at the collegiate level in Baltimore (Towson State, UMBC, Villa Julie College, University of Baltimore).
I think that the Baltimore community owes a debt of gratitude to organizations like Young Life, which selflessly serve to meet the real needs of today's youth.
Dan Flynn.
Baltimore.
The writer is director, Campus Crusade for Christ.
Editor: I am responding to the letter written by Marilyn Pauline Robbins on Baltimore City's new regulations allowing student-initiated Bible studies and prayer groups in the schools. Ms. Robbins does not say whether or not she participated in a Bible study while she was a student, but her letter indicates that she did not, as she seems unfamiliar with basic Christian values as well as with the groups she lists in her letter.
As a student during the 1970s and 1980s who was involved in an on- and off-campus religious organization, I'd like to share my experience with concerned parents who aren't familiar with the activities of an organization similar to Young Life and Campus Crusade.
I attended the Roland Park Country School where I was under enormous pressure to excel academically and socially. Like most kids I was better at some things than others. Had this been my only measure of self worth, I am sure I would have become involved in some sort of harmful activity or another. However, I became involved with FOCUS (Fellowship of Christians in Universities and Schools). Rather than attempting to instill "right-wing," "fundamentalist doctrine," this organization, provided an arena where I could question religious doctrine. Rather than "subtly-fed," the religious message was extremely straightforward and delivered in a manner that was easy to understand and therefore easy to accept or reject. Rather than being taught "sexist, racist" or "classist" attitudes, FOCUS was the one place in my life where these barriers did not exist.
Parents and teachers are encouraged to attend student meetings because Young Life, Campus Crusade and FOCUS each respects the concern responsible adults have about the influences on their kids. Before giving in to a knee-jerk reaction to something unfamiliar, attend a meeting and you will find an atmosphere of openness and fun. Anyone who thinks students can be duped into believing something that radically conflicts with their upbringing forgets how skeptical teen-agers are.
It is inevitable that whenever the subject of religion arises, people get their hackles up, so I applaud the Baltimore City school system for its courageous step.
$ Molly O'Donovan. Ruxton.
Editor: While I would like to comment on several points Marilyn Pauline Robbins raises in her letter, including the supposed peer and faculty pressure on students to participate in religious groups, I save my response for one particular aspect of her letter. I find it interesting that in her defense of the "open and free mind" she could be so narrow-minded and biased in her thinking.
While she qualifies the statement somewhat, her generalization that the Christians participating in the Bible studies or prayer groups are "sexist, racist, classist and homophobic" is evidence of a disturbing prejudice on her part. Perhaps in her personal experience with Christians she has encountered individuals with such attitudes, but to make such a sweeping characterization about an entire group in our society based upon her personal impression strikes me as a dangerous example to the free minds she is attempting to defend.
! Sarah Murray Dow.
Baltimore.