U-M Heritage »

Chorus girls

The presence of chorus girls at a 1921 fraternity party revealed scandalous behavior by students and administrators alike.

Sports »

Bill Martin's legacy

As he approaches retirement, the athletic director will go down as one of U-M's most influential figures.

Most emailed stories

Talking about science »

A world without ice

Geophysics professor Henry Pollack explains how scientists know that CO₂ is at its highest level in 800,000 years, and what it means for the planet.

Alumni

Veterans Radio

U-M alumni and Vietnam veterans Dale Throneberry and Bob Gould found their calling in the stories of fellow vets.

Talking about movies »

Tarantino's film history

The director's latest film is brutally violent at the same time it joyfully recalls movies of the past.

Talking about words »

Canadian, eh

Native speakers are increasingly proud of the "fizzy Canadian cocktail" that is their language.

An online magazine for alumni and friends of U-M.

Letters to the editor

Want to respond to something you read in Michigan Today or about U-M? Submit letter here.

To share your personal news and read about other alums, go to alumni notes.

To read about U-M history and contribute your own stories about what U-M was like when you were here, go to Your U-M History.

(November 19th, 2009)

Mr. Martin's legacy as the University of Michigan athletic director is marred by his decision to name Rich Rodriguez as head coach of the football team prior to the end of West Virginia's playoff season. There was no reason given for making the announcement before the Mountaineers' season ended; it was apparently done entirely for the sake of expediency.

This isn't the way that college athletics should function, and the University of Michigan should neither participate in nor sanction this behavior - and they didn't used to. Way back in 1989, UM Men's Basketball coach Bill Frieder announced - immediately prior to the start of the NCAA tournament - that he would take the head coaching job at Arizona State University. The entire UM community were uniformly outraged that a coach would do that to his team of student athletes. Many were equally outraged that another University would need to announce their new head coaching choice at that instant, rather than waiting until the playoff season had ended. There was pretty much unanimous agreement that it was not a good situation for anyone - the team, UM, coach Frieder, or ASU. The team and UM were deprived of a coach at a critical time, Frieder looked like a mercenary, and ASU looked desperate.

I guess that times have changed, and not for the better. Martin's decision to announce Rodriguez as coach showed the same hallmarks as ASU's decision to name Frieder. We, as a University, appear not to have learned from a famous and painful episode - and that's a pretty damning criticism of the entire University of Michigan administration.

Mark Gabriele
BSE
1985
EECS
Silver Spring,

(November 19th, 2009)

Just want to say how much I enjoy receiving this. A nice doorway to many memories.

Myra Joseph Feit
A.B.
1957
LSA
Columbia,

(November 13th, 2009)

I very much enjoyed Mr. Glenn's 40th anniversary celebration of the Paul McCartney death rumor ("Paul is Dead" said Fred, November 2009), and the University's prominent place in its history. For those who would like delve further into the story, may I suggest they take a look at my book on the event, TURN ME ON, DEAD MAN.

Andru J. Reeve

Martinez,

(November 12th, 2009)

While I have no problem with the data presented, the jump to causal correlation of increased CO2 concentration to temperature increase seems unjustified. Perhaps there is evidence out there that demonstrates that increasing CO2 concentration does result in increased global temperatures, but much more in the way of evidence needs to be provided. While increasing the concentration of CO2 to 400 ppm plus sounds impressive, these concentrations still represent an increadibly small fraction of our atmosphere. I question CO2's ability to effect temperature change at these concentrations. Where is the discussion of other more likely and reasonable causes of temperature change. Is the change in atmospheric chemistry really the most important driver of contemporary global warming?

David Brackney
EdD, MS, BA
2008, 1995, 1989

Attica,

(November 12th, 2009)

The thing I remember most about the "Paul is Dead" rumor, strangely enough, was a letter to editor by Fargo Bermann (I don't know him personally and am surprised that I remember his name after 40 years). Fargo claimed that Paul McCartney was not dead, but rather it had been Bob Dylan who had died and McCarthy was impersonating the dead Dylan. That explained the non-Dylanesque nature of Nashville Skyline, Dylan's latest album at the time. Fargo also had information, he said, that President Nixon had also died, but that no one was impersonating him. I'm sure you could find this letter to the editor in the microfilm copies of the Daily.

Paul Bick
B.A.
1972
Res.College - LSA
Santa Fe,

(November 12th, 2009)

I thought your article on Canadian English (November 2009) was very interesting. In particular your sound comparisons link was very fascinating. I've always been a very proud speaker of Canadian English, but as a Toronto native I must admit I would be clueless if I saw "fish and brewis" on a menu as well. I believe that dish is mostly confined to the Maritime area of Canada.

Steven Wallace

Atlanta,

(November 12th, 2009)

I am tried of hearing "it takes time." The fact is that a coach taking over one of the legacy football programs—Ohio State, Florida, Alabama, LSU, Texas, Oklahoma, Southern Cal—does not require time to produce a winning program if they are competent. Fielding Yost, Fritz Crisler, and Bo did not need a couple of seasons to get on the winning track. Nebraska has yet (10 years later) to recover from a bad coaching hire. (the AD wanted someone who would do things differently and win a national championship-so the new coach changed the offense and changed recruiting targets (sound familiar) and ended Nebraska's string of winning records).

The one who wears a sweater vest commented that the offense and defense schemes must be designed to maximize the talents of the players on the field. Bo decided that he did not have the personnel to run an option-oriented offense in 1969 and 1970 and went with Don Morehead as his quarterback (those teams did pretty well).

A college coach can only succeed if he recruits the players he needs to win. Fielding Yost brought in William Heston, Knute Rockne got George Gipp out of a bar in the UP. Yet, Michigan's recent recruits are (with a few exceptions such as William Campbell) not considered top 100 material. Michigan's defense is the worst in school history in 2008. So Coach R brings in as defensive coordinator a man who lost his job at Syracuse because he was not able to recruit quality athletes. Michigan's supposedly great conditioning programs have not prevented two years of second half collapses in October and November. Usually long (over 20 yards) plays occur when the offense has more speed than the defense. Michigan routinely gives up big plays and has players caught from behind. Small and slow is not a good combination.

Coach R did not run the table at West Virginia, even though he had some great players who were ideally suited for his offense. Michigan football was bad from 1958 to 1963 but this current run just might end up as being even worse. Oh well.

Donald Treadwell, Jr.
AB, MBA
1970, 1972
LSA, Business Administration
Grosse Ile ,

(November 12th, 2009)

In Dr. Pollack's article (A world without ice, November 2009), he failed to provide information on the tons of CO2 increase in the atmosphere and the tons produced by the use of fossil fuels. While I am sure the data appears elsewhere in his work I was hoping that it could be made available without further digging.

Donald Treadwell, Jr.
B.A., MBA
1970, 1972
LSA, Business administration
Grosse Ile,

(November 12th, 2009)

Re: A world without ice (November 2009): This piece neglects a large number key facts. Just to mention a couple: Roger Revelle, the famed Scripps ecologist who was one of the first distinguished scientists to become concerned about the potential for greenhouse gas warming and (we are told) teacher of Al Gore, became very skeptical about the magnitude of it in his later life. Another neglected factoid is that ice core CO2 changes lag temperature by several hundred years at the onset of ice ages and interglacials. An honest rendition would have blown up the scale so that all could see that. The correlation shows only that the earth responds to temperature changes by ocean up take or outgassing of CO2, just like a seltzer water.

Meanwhile the earth continues to neglect the dire predictions of the Nobel-winning climate models and advocates, pacing off its recalcitrant decade-long temperature flatline.

Your science reporting needs some balance.

Roger Cohen
B.S.,M.S.,Ph.D.
1966
MIT, Rutgers
Durango,

(November 11th, 2009)

The story about Dean Bates and his reaction to a fraternity associating with chorus girls (Chorus girls, November 2009) reminded me of a story my father, Griffith Herold, (Law 1929) told of his experience with the Dean. Dad told of winning a pool tournament at the Union and when his name was published, the Dean called him in and "reminded" him he was on campus to study law and and not to shoot pool. Seems the Law Dean was very concerned about the image of the school and its students.

John Herold
BS, MS,MA
1963,196,1967
LSA, Rackham
Ann Arbor,

See all letters