Letters to the Editor

Attend the Student/Faculty Dinner

If your major is within the College of Behavioral and Social Sciences, I don't have to explain what having large class sizes feels like. While the average class size in the university sits at 37, the average BSOS class holds a hefty 67 students. How is a student supposed to develop a relationship with his or her professor in such an environment? In our nation's increasingly competitive job market, relationships with faculty members and the letters of recommendations that accompany those relationships can make all the difference in one's future. To help you build these crucial relationships with your professors, BSOS Dean Edward Montgomery, the Dean's Student Advisory Council and the Student Government Association will be holding the first-ever BSOS Student/Faculty Dinner on April 28. From 5 to 7 p.m. in the Colony Ballroom, BSOS students and faculty will participate in relaxed discussion over a full dinner served free of charge. Please RSVP by tomorrow to bsosdsac@umd.edu. In your e-mail, include your major, class year, dietary restrictions and how you found out about the event. Seating preference will be given to sophomores and juniors. Space is limited for this exciting event, so register early!

Nick Chamberlain BSOS Legislator Speaker of the Legislature Student Government Association Member Dean's Student Advisory Council

A hypocritical response

In looking at The Diamondback online a few days ago, I noticed on the right of the webpage that the most commented item recently published was Max Greenberg's April 9 cartoon depicting the 2008 Beijing Olympics logo in blood. In reading the 30-some comments, I knew it was only a matter of time before The Diamondback published a letter from a Chinese student group. That letter in complaint, from the Chinese Student & Scholar Association, was published yesterday. Initially, CSSA president Dan Liao laments that Greenberg might try to "mix the Olympics with politics." However, it seems to me that it is not Max Greenberg, in any sense, who has been the first to use the upcoming Olympics as an excuse to discuss China in the realm of global politics. With riot-like protests in London and Paris during the running of the Olympic torch and security in San Francisco that made the ceremony almost laughable, the world (or at least all of Western media) has clearly turned the Olympics into a stage for the discussion of China's human rights records. Contrary to the implications of Liao's letter, this was not the doing of Max Greenberg or the editors of The Diamondback. Liao requests an apology for the publication of the cartoon, asserting that, foremost among other offenses, the cartoon hurt the feelings of Chinese students. He claims that personal views may be biased, a statement that seems all but completely hypocritical in the middle of a letter complaining of feelings hurt by a freely expressed political statement. Liao's time would have been better spent educating Diamondback readers about their apparent ignorance and bias involving the Chinese political situation. Instead, he only complained that the Olympics were being used as a stage for political statements, a practice that has been a reality since the 1950s.

Josh Crawford Freshman Letters & sciences