To the editor:
After reading the staff editorial "Campus opening premature" (Sept. 15, Opinion) and its follow up "Academic accountability needed in wake of storm" (Monday, Opinion), I felt compelled to express my disappointment over the incredibly one-sided coverage this issue seems to be getting. While the views presented in these, and similar stories found in The Daily Cougar and The Houston Chronicle, appear to be shared by many around campus and even the city as a whole, it would seem overly presumptuous to imply they’re in any way definitive. After all, over the course of the past week I’ve heard numerous voices in support of the choice to reopen, yet there seems to be little mention of this anywhere.
Moreover, many of the arguments presented seem to be based on "what if" scenarios. To date, there appears to be no evidence that anyone, faculty, staff or students, was directly or indirectly endangered as a result of the administration’s choice to reopen. Many I’m sure were inconvenienced, and many others were upset by the decision, but those who were truly hit the hardest quietly took the allowed time off and began to repair their lives as opposed to fretting over administrative decision-making.
Whatever path the administration chose to take was likely an unpopular one with one group or another; reopening too soon spurs complaints for not being considerate of people’s needs, while the decision to open later would have spurred complaints down the line when the entire semester was forced to be rescheduled on account of the excessive time-off. Therefore, instead of wasting time questioning the logic of past decisions, energy could be better spent focusing on the future and figuring out where to go from here.
Neil Penny
political science sophomore
