STUDENTS DEFEND PROF

RE: "Prof is Impaired," Letters to the Editor, Nov. 15,
2006

Dear Editor,

Klaus Kaczor opens his letter to the editor entitled "Prof is
Impaired" with the following:

"There is now a chance to study the effects of pot on the impairment
of an individual. Allowing a professor to smoke on the job for his
health is the perfect opportunity to study the side effects of an
intelligent individual's marijuana use."

Although this is obviously a cheap rhetorical move on the part of the
author, he is correct in that we do have the ability to study "the
side-effects of an intelligent individual's marijuana use." It's a
shame, however, that Mr. Kaczor is not present in the classroom of the
above mentioned professor like we, his students, are to witness the
effects of the study.

If Mr.Kaczor were present, he would know his ridiculous analogy
between the harms of impaired driving, and the supposed harms of
impaired lecturing doesn't work. To put it simply, as first-hand
observants of the study, Mr.Kaczor's thesis and conclusions about our
professor are completely invalid.

Up to this point, Mr. Kaczor's statements are merely ignorant and
misinformed, but when he invokes us students with the statement that
"intelligent students in the professor's classes should soon be
protesting that their instructor is impaired," we can tell him that he
is not only out of line for speaking on our behalf, but he is also out
of line for making wild conjectures about our professor's condition.

In short, we, the intelligent students, will not be protesting our
instructor's ability to teach because our lengthy study - a full fall
semester of classes - has shown that this professor is not impaired
and is, in fact, quite lucid and professional.

Ryan Mitchell and the class of CRIM 3651

This letter was accompanied by the signatures of 34 students.