Dear Editor,
I am one of those who wrote in to criticize The Stanford Daily’s editorial, which labeled Dr. Victor Davis Hanson a racist, and expressed my disappointment that such a poorly argued editorial, whose author had entirely misread Hanson’s remarks and intentions, was published at all. Like others, I believe The Stanford Daily owes Dr. Hanson a public apology.
However, the writers of several letters to the editor responding to the Hanson editorial have engaged in similar ad hominem attacks and generalized negatively about the intellect, abilities and political leanings of Stanford students and their teachers, even questioning the national standing of the University itself.
Despite the well-deserved criticism of that single editorial, I do not waver in my belief that it was an absolute privilege to be a Stanford student and it still is. Stanford is an incredible place to get an education, a place of rigorous debate, talented students and outstanding faculty, and may well be the best University in the world.
As an alumna, I am about to spend $3,000 for my husband and me to attend the four-day Homecoming Reunion of the Stanford Class of ’65 this month (registration fees, airfare, hotel, rental car, etc.). We are willing to pay that just for the privilege of sitting in on a few Classes Without Quizzes led by distinguished Stanford professors and researchers, panel discussions on current issues, tours of the gorgeous campus and the singular opportunity to enjoy a Dinner on the Quad. And we plan to do it again five years from now for my 50th reunion.
On scholarship, loans, grants and a work-study program even to be able to afford to go to Stanford, I was an English major who took classes across the curriculum with professors I could only dream of meeting. Admittedly, I wrote some papers that I’d like to reach back through time and retract (not unlike some Daily editorial writers), but I learned the proverbial lessons of a lifetime at Stanford. I met people of all races, religions and creeds and spent long nights at Roble, FloMo and Hurlburt and in Beutelsbach listening and openly discussing every philosophical, religious and political viewpoint imaginable. Like students everywhere, sometimes I was an ass and sometimes I actually made a few worthwhile contributions.
But I was never pressured to conform my thinking to any particular direction at Stanford, whether liberal or conservative, other than being guided to be clear, to use logic and to be able to back up my assertions with facts, authority and solid examples. Perhaps some of the writers of those letters to the editor criticizing Stanford as promoting leftist, liberal propaganda would be amazed to know I actually graduated as a conservative independent in my political leanings.
Yes, at every university, as Dr. Hanson writes, some policies should be re-examined and changed. Stanford has warts, but it continues to be a truly great university. And I have no doubt that open discussion and rigorous examination of diverse ideas will always be part of what makes Stanford a place where the wind of freedom still blows.
Sharon (Fogleman) Hockensmith ‘65
McKinney, Texas