Letters to the Editor

Graduation changes unfair to the students

To the Editor:

I am writing in response to the Oct. 4 article by David Crandall "Tickets, T.V.s planned for Commencement 2002" that detailed the potential alterations to next year's Commencement ceremony.

When I read the article announcing these changes, I was outraged. Near the end of last semester, I made a personal visit to the Office of Special Events to inquire about the seating system for graduation and I was assured that no tickets would be necessary. This came as a great relief to me since I have eight family members who have already made travel and hotel arrangements. Now, only seven months in advance, I find it absurd that the powers-that-be should propose to limit graduates to four guests who will be guaranteed seating. This must be challenged. After four years of working my ass off and more than $150,000 spent on my education, I'll be damned if half of my family is relegated to a far-away corner of Garland Field to watch me accept my diploma via a television screen.

I greatly appreciate the sentiment expressed by last week's editorial "Changes to Commencement leave something to be desired," and I hope that my classmates will join me in working to prevent the ticket system from being instituted.

Sincerely,

Meredith Make

Medical school admissions deserve credit

To the Editor:

I am writing in regards to your Sept. 28, 2001 article "Glitch delays medical school apps by Eric Ridge" about the issues with the AMCAS online medical school applications.

This past September, I was a temp in the medical school admisssions office, assigned to help with the mountains of paperwork the AMCAS glitches have necessitated. Though I worked in the office for less than a month, I was amazed at how well the three admissions assistants, Ms. Caroline Kilgore, Ms. Darlene Ballard and Ms. Beverly Kail, took to the conditions of their positions.

Each day, there were new directives from supervisors, new methods of sorting current and pending applications and new problems regarding AMCAS. It was not unusual for one day's top priority to become the next day's afterthought. One afternoon, I answered phones while the office was in an important staff meeting. Those few hours shook any doubt I had as to how hard these three women work, how much of their own feelings and suggestions may be discarded or ignored, but most importantly, how much of themselves they put aside to meet their goal: to have everyone who is applying for 2002 be admitted as fast and seamlessly as if AMCAS were up and running as planned.

So if anyone applying to the Hopkins medical school comes across this letter, please keep it in mind the next time you give the admissions staff a call about the status of your application. Whether you're calling from Baltimore or Seattle or Austrailia, they care about getting you the most information they have at any given moment. They are just as frustrated and hindered by AMCAS as you are.

Your article quoted Dr. James Weiss, one of the deans at the medical school as saying, "We have our wonderful office staff working overtime. This whole situation is going to work out fine." Through no fault of the News-Letter, this is the only mention of thanks to the admissions staff about their work through the past few months.

Until now.

Sincerely,

Adrian Breeman

Kappa files column shows hypocrisy

To the Editor:

I found the article entitled "Kappa Kappa Gamma starting file" [Shannon Shin, Oct. 4, 2001] ridiculous. It was completely hypocritical for the author to accuse Kappa of being unethical, as she wrote the story based on a conversation that she overheard in a restaurant. The story is hearsay or bordering on it. I have no deep connections to Kappa, or any other sorority for that matter, but the least she [Shin] could have done was omit their name. The author should be more embarrassed for writing the article than Kappa members are after reading it.

Sincerely,

Katie Ruocco