DRUG USE NOT A DESIRABLE QUALITY IN SUCCESSFUL PROFS

Kenneth Evans, in his Dec. 4 article ("Just say' No' to faculty drug
tests"), postulates that "drugs and academia are like milk and cookies,"
that "a few coked-to-the-gills computer scientists may not be a bad thing,"
and that "if you haven't hallucinated your way through the mimetic web of
meanings I'm in your class to hear you untangle, then it just might be that
I'm not getting a top-of-the-line education."

Mr. Evans' opinion makes me wonder who has been putting what in his
milk and cookies. For one thing, I don't recall drugs having much
influence on academia - the limited usefulness of drugs has been
mainly in the field of the arts. For another, I won't waste my time
with anyone who can't think "differently" on their own, without the
use of chemicals. If they have nothing worth saying sober, then coking
them up won't help at all.

There is one group that benefits greatly from Mr. Evans' viewpoint:
the United States government. The drug trade is a vast resource of
non-declared income, for both the criminal and the government. Without
customers for their illicit product, drug traders would have no
business, and without the business, the government could not profit
from its few isolated drug raids. So keep snorting, toking, shooting
and 'basing, because every puff, shot or line is another dollar in
Uncle Sam's pocket.

I would oppose faculty drug testing because I believe that our faculty
has the wisdom and understanding to choose the right alternative for
themselves. I would not encourage faculty drug use. I would trust no
professor that felt that drug use was a necessary part of their job,
and would work to have that member dismissed from their post as a
danger to themselves and their students.

Lane Russell

sophomore political science