Editor,
Your editorial "Hypocrisy reigns as free speech is ignored" was apparently based on some totally false version of the Faculty Senate meeting on Sept. 25.
In fact, the crisis surrounding Professor Richard Berthold's ill-considered remark to his class on Sept. 11 was immediately placed on the day's agenda. Many senators spoke up in defense of Professor Berthold, including references to his apology, and the consensus clearly was that his words, however thoughtless, are protected by the Faculty Handbook and its principles of academic freedom.
The Senate discussion was as intense as it was responsive to the several issues crucial to the University in this matter.
The meeting was suspended by a need to yield the Kiva Lecture Hall to a scheduled class, but surely no one assumed that the Senate had finished its deliberations on the crisis, probably least of all President John Geissman, who presided in a spirit of both fairness and urgency.
Your charge of "hypocrisy" is groundless.
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Probably most of all, this unfortunate lapse shows the need for a journalistic priority at the Daily Lobo: that a reporter be present at all Faculty Senate meetings. Fully accurate reporting would help keep phantoms out of our most passionate discourses.
Byron Lindsey
Associate Professor, Foreign Languages and Literatures Faculty Senator, Arts and Sciences
Editor's Note: The editorial referred to a letter sent to all legislators signed by Faculty Senate President John Geissman, not to the latter portion of the Faculty Senate meeting.
