ugzannin@sunybcs.UUCP (Adrian Zannin) (02/28/86)
I recently read an article in one of our university's student magazines
that made me aware of something that I did not know before, and never thought
could happen at a place that is supposed to place emphasis on the persuit
of knowledge and science.
You see, I attend the State University of New York at Buffalo. One point
that many people may not be aware of is that Gregory Jarvis, who was among
the seven astronauts killed in the explosion of Challenger, went to this
university and earned his degree in Electrical Engineering here. Now, there
are two buildings in the Engineering department here that for several years
have had somewhat generic names: Engineering East and Engineering West. All
the other buildings here, with the exception of the Student Activities Center,
are named after someone.
Now, before Mr. Jarvis left on the ill-fated mission, he promised to take
one of our University's flags up into space with him and unfurl it as a kind
of tribute to the school that "...was the key to unlocking my future." After
he was killed in the explosion, our Student Association presented a motion to
have one of the unnamed engineering buildings named after him. The proposal
was refused by the University. Why? Because here at SUNY/Buffalo, a place so
dedicated to academic achievements and the persuit of knowledge, in order to
have a building named after you, you have to make "...a significant *financial*
contribution..." to the university. To be perfectly honest and frank, and
please excuse the term, I think that sucks. As the article in the magazine
said, maybe we can at least convince the university to name a Money-Matic
machine or a coffee machine after him.
Here was a man who was representing our school in one of man's greatest
achievements and was doing it before the entire world, and our university
can't even break from its building-naming "tradition" once and name a
building after him. Our magazine article also showed what kind of values
our administration has here. It turns out that one of the buildings here
is named after a family that contributed two million dollars, but is also
known to have significant ties with the underworld. I guess not every
institution believes in what is says it does. All I see here is greed. And
yet the university continues to preach its emphasis on academic achievement
and the persuit of knowledge...
What I would like to know is, does anyone out there have any ideas as
to how to get the university to change its mind? Should we give the issue
wide publicity and/or try to start a massive letter-writing campaign? Or,
since the governor of the state is in charge of the State University system,
would we be justified in writing to him about it? I would really like to
hear from people that have serious ideas. I think it is a crime and an
awful shame that the university has pulled such a blatant, two-faced act
and would like to see something done about it.
Thank you for any suggestions...I really appreciate it.
--
Adrian Zannin
SUNY at Buffalo Computer Science
..{bbncca,decvax,dual,rocksvax,watmath,sbcs}!sunybcs!ugzannin
CSNET: ugzannin@Buffalo.CSNET
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BITNET: ugzannin@sunybcs.BITNETdjo@ptsfd.UUCP (Dan'l Oakes) (03/06/86)
I couldn't agree more with yer honor. Your board of regents are behaving in a manner which I can best describe as "scabrous" (but I'd do better if I had my thesaurus, you betcha). Tell them that as a native New Yorker, they make me PROUD to have become a Californian. dan'l oakes