Letters to the editor

LeMenager decision shows integrity

I am writing to stongly disagree with your editorial regarding Steve LeMenager's appointment. Far from providing a "less-than-savory morality lesson," this choice does the opposite. Consider that, as you admit, few individuals know what exactly happened in the admissions office last year. Properly seeking to protect the privacy of all concerned, the University has not made public the investigative report it provided Yale and the Federal authorities. Given that your newspaper had no new data with which to rebuke Mr. LeMenager or the administration, I suggest your editorial was more than ill advised. Before you go around condemning others' morality, please be certain of your facts.

Moreover, even taking the absolute worst reading of the available information, Mr. LeMenager's actions did not exactly approach moral depravity. In fact, he was open and honest about what he had done and made a point of informing the Yale authorities of the possible breach in their security. His behavior after the fact was also exemplary. Unlike others, he accepted responsibility and has never broached professional and personal confidences. Considering the pain all of these events have caused him and his family, his restraint and maturity deserve our respect.

It would have been easy for the University to fire Mr. LeMenager and to adopt a tone of moral rectitude. Instead, it decided to give a trusted and valued employee a new opportunity and showed precisely the kind of institutional integrity we would expect. Miguel A. Centeno Professor of Sociology Master of Wilson College

Israel is not the only Mid-East democracy

There was a spectacular statement in the Prince on April 1st and sadly, not an April fools joke: a full-page ad, signed by members of the Princeton University community, including professors (!), people representing 47 states and 28 countries, that support the existence of Israel. I should emphasize that this is not what made the full-page ad spectacular and is not the topic of this letter. Rather, the spectacular statement was in one of the all-caps subtitles: "We support Israel as the only democracy in the Middle East." Ahem. Excuse me: Princeton University members, of all people, should know better, and the Prince should know better than to publish a fundamentally wrong statement. This signifies either (a) people do not know what they are signing, (b) they do, but they have not done their homework or, more chillingly (c) they cannot accept a predominantly Muslim country as a democracy, even if it is a major ally of Israel in the Middle East. All are chilling, but I would like to emphasize, in all caps, that ISRAEL IS NOT THE ONLY DEMOCRACY IN THE MIDDLE EAST. TURKEY ALSO HAPPENS TO BE IN THE MIDDLE EAST AND IS A DEMOCRACY. I would strongly urge the sponsors of this ad (Princeton Israel Public Affairs Committee) and the Prince to recognize this mistake and extend an apology to the members of the Turkish student community that have been strongly disappointed in them and who question their cause in this statement. Zeynep Gumus GS Former president of the Turkish Graduate Student Association