Letters to the editor

Scholarships offer inadequate recognition

To the editor:

I am writing to express my displeasure regarding the scholarship policy here. I am an undergraduate sophomore. I receive a Santa Clara grant and was recently informed that any additional academic scholarships that I may earn in my remaining three years here can only fall within the amount of my grant unless they create a sum which is larger than that which I am already receiving.

This means that would be hard pressed to ever be adequately rewarded for my academic achievements and in turn can never rise above the small sum which is afforded to me quarterly.

For a Jesuit university pledging allegiance to a well-rounded education and student body, Santa Clara has only stifled students' abilities to earn scholarship money through outstanding scholastic achievement. This seems contradictory to their mission, ensuring that students who receive more economic support through the university will have less of a chance to gain recognition for academic achievements.

This is not only a bad policy, but a discriminatory one which stifles achievement and lets amazing students go unrecognized.

I understand that running a private Jesuit university requires money. I also understand the ridiculously high tuition prices that students pay to attend this university.

When $40,000 a year is allocated to maintaining each palm tree on campus, I find it hard to believe that Santa Clara is depriving students of the academic recognition they deserve.

Julia Eisen-Meyers

Political science '08

All majors welcome in ethnic, gender courses

To the editor:

As directors of the ethnic studies and women's and gender studies programs, we were cheered by Matthew Meyerhofer's call to extend the ethnic/gender studies core requirement to the business and engineering schools ("Repairing a liberal arts education," Oct. 13).

We understand that business and engineering students have crowded schedules, but we want them to know that even with their current core requirements, they have many opportunities to take courses in our programs. Some 86 courses in the university core, including United States, area studies/regional, ethics, and second and third religion requirements, are also women's and gender studies or ethnic studies courses. (The industrious student will find a few that triple dip.) We welcome students from the entire university in our classrooms.

Linda Garber

Director, women's and gender studies program;

Juliana Chang

Director, ethnic studies program