After reading Andrew Lohse's most recent diatribe of baseless statements ("Misleading Voices," Aug. 19) criticizing this fine institution, its student body and professors who have toiled tirelessly to put together the Leading Voices in Politics and Policy lecture series, I feel compelled to defend the community and address each senseless fallacy put forward by the true misleading voice, Lohse himself.
Lohse will have you believe that Dartmouth is a gold-rimmed silver platter overflowing with money-minded anti-intellectuals. Although I recently discussed the excesses of corporate culture at Dartmouth ("Lessons from Leading Voices'" Aug. 16), I'd ask Lohse to visit the numerous research laboratories or classrooms across campus filled with stimulating intellectual discussions. Several students join Teach for America, work for NGOs or go into academia after college are these students also the money-obsessed know-nothings that Lohse so detests?
As a student in Public Policy 20, the companion class to the lecture series, and an attendee of every class and public lecture delivered by the inspirational slate of speakers, I must have unquestioningly drank the "shameful Kool-Aid" of the Immelts and Paulsons of the world and pledged allegiance to these wealthy white men, according to Lohse. But it is sheer ignorance to state that one cannot listen to a speaker without endorsing his views. It exposes Lohse's lack of fact-checking by assuming students do not have the opportunity to ask questions and shape the discussion. If Lohse had visited our class before criticizing the lecture series and maligning our ambitions and intellectual abilities, he would have seen students critically question our speakers and engage in heated intellectual debate.
Lohse is quick to jump on Paulson's role at Goldman Sachs and Immelt's alleged tax evasions, but he ignores General Electric's employment of thousands of American workers and Secretary Paulson's pivotal role in averting a depression that would have had devastating consequences on millions of the middle and lower class workers Lohse claims to support.
Lohse complains about the homogeneity of our speakers and describes them as men simply profiting from "making their troubles the world's own" at the cost of the middle class. One of our speakers, however, was President Kim, an Asian-American who has made great strides in health care delivery for the poor. Both Paulson, as former head of the Department of Treasury, and Immelt, Chairman of the Council on Jobs and Competitiveness, have served the American public to stimulate economic growth and job creation most certainly a selfless agenda. Lohse completely fails to mention the man he most likely shares views with, Robert Reich, who has vigorously advocated for supporting the middle class. While the public lecture series failed to include women, the Public Policy 20 professors worked very hard to attract women to the series. Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Me., rejected the invitation and former Chairwoman of the Council of Economic Advisers Christina Romer backed out. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., and United States Agency for International Development appointee Mara Rudman both gave class lectures but were not available for public lectures. Basic research on Lohse's part would have uncovered these truths.
At the end of his tirade, Lohse states that "our College should be embarrassed that President Kim's Leading Voices' have led us astray, disrespected our humanity and eviscerated higher education's core values." This could not be farther from the truth. The lecture series has allowed this community to have an open dialogue with some of the most influential policymakers in the country. By reading hundreds of pages of text each week to engage in scholarly conversation with these speakers, my eyes have opened to what will be our generation's greatest problems. Certainly, I did not support the views of all of our speakers, but my understanding of the major issues and potential solutions certainly benefited from their presence in the lecture hall.
Lohse astutely stated in an earlier column ("A Corporate Stranglehold," Aug. 2) that the reason we came to this College is "to probe big questions about why the world is the way it is." This lecture series has forced students to think critically about society's major problems and their potential solutions. I am confident that if Lohse took the time to attend a Public Policy 20 class lecture, he might have found the core values he so aggressively demands from higher education.
