Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, September 2, 1995                   TAG: 9509060012
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A-7   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

DEJA VU AT VMI AND THE CITADEL

Compare and contrast the efforts to enroll women in the Corps of Cadets at The Citadel and Virginia Military Institute to the protracted legal and social conflicts over the enrollment of black students in the all-white public schools of Little Rock, Ark., in 1957, and at the state universities of Alabama (1956, 1963) and Mississippi (1962).

Hint: The comparisons are more numerous and telling than the contrasts.

MITCHELL L. MENDELSON

ROANOKE

Sincerity counts in sheriff's race

THERE ARE a lot of reasons to elect Doug Maynard sheriff of Bedford County. He has 28 years of legal and law-enforcement experience, has excellent administrative skills, and has a workable plan to improve our sheriff's department.

The best reason to elect Maynard? He's truly sincere in his desire to do and give only his best to Bedford County and its citizens.

I've known him for about eight years, and there's no doubt about it: A vote for Maynard is a wise vote.

MALINDA RIVERS

BEDFORD

Was the coach unsportsmanlike?

YOUR AUG. 28 headline, ``Welsh not surprised with loss,'' should have read: ``Welsh surprised at loss.''

The ``catch'' by Mercury Hayes brought about an affliction of astonishment, as well as a state of amazement and disgust.

This was exhibited by the immediate exit of Coach George Welsh. Officially, this could have been a call of unsportsmanlike conduct, a costly penalty.

EMILY P. BARLEY

ROANOKE

A slap in the face to Radford's faculty

CARROLL SMITH'S Aug. 26 letter to the editor (``Tenure defends academic freedom against big brother'') only partially offsets the damage done by unbalanced reporting in your Aug. 17 article, ``Radford tenure questioned.''

Since when does a newspaper report the views of the Radford University Board of Visitors on a controversial issue without interviewing alternative spokespersons who might give the article balance? In this case, balance could have been provided by spokespersons in Radford for the American Association of University Professors.

The national AAUP, founded in 1940 by faculty and administrators from major American universities, has provided the standard for integrity and excellence in internal governance for colleges and universities. Its three basic principles for these are tenure, academic freedom and shared (democratic) internal governance where faculty members have a real voice.

Without all three, conditions promoting excellence in higher education (such as faculty creativity, open dialogue and debate, the unhindered pursuit of knowledge and truth, and quality teaching) suffer.

For most of its history until recently, Radford University has had tenure, but has lacked real academic freedom and shared internal governance. Your news article quotes Carson Quarles as not knowing of ``any college professor who's been fired over free-speech issues.'' At Radford, they haven't been fired, but policy critics over the past 30 years have been railroaded through punitive procedures without adequate due-process protection. Unfair letters of reprimand were put in their files. They were denied deserved periodic pay raises and promotions, given difficult teaching schedules, denied additional summer-school teaching requests or travel requests, and verbally abused.

Since the faculty has no power at Radford University, the appeal to faculty committees to redress such wrongs has done little good. The committees are only ``advisory'' to an administration that has had total power and control. The result is that integrity, excellence and academic freedom have suffered terribly over the years.

The AAUP is now attempting to work with Radford's new president to improve integrity and excellence. But if the Board of Visitors were to institute ``tenure review,'' it would mean the end of any hope for excellence in higher education at Radford. Many faculty members have worked hard for years to increase the educational excellence here. For the Board of Visitors to now question even tenure is a slap in the face to those efforts.

GLEN MARTIN

Associate Professor of Philosophy and Religious Studies

Radford University

RADFORD