Although the concept of a senior gift is a good one, our donations are repeatedly being solicited by playing on our assumed fears of exclusion and through tactics of directed peer pressure. At the end of our senior year, when we are trying to get in those last few Tuesdays at Table Manners, and hang out as much as we possibly can despite pressures of theses, oral examinations, and the like, senior bonding moments should not be disrupted because of a strategy on the part of the gift committee.

Lately it is tough to attend a Pomona class without talking about your feelings.

"What do you think about the text?" a teacher might ask.

"I feel like the author ignored the agency of non-establishment actors," a student might answer.

But why?

Must we preface our statements with "I feel" or "I think" or "It seems like"? Sometimes these constructions are valid. It is okay to express views that we aren’t sure about. But it "seems like" we aren’t sure about anything anymore.

I strongly disagree with Friedersdorf’s suggested reforms set forth in his recent editorial. It is clear that the environmental movement is not so banal and hollow that it only takes up issues like global warming and international treaties.

I am writing in regards to the half page ad you ran in last week’s paper offering an $80,000 bounty for a 5’9", Caucasian, "Special Egg Donor," with an SAT score over 1250. Frankly I was disturbed by both the tone of the ad and the fact that TSL chose to run it.

Editor,

I just wanted to let the entire staff of The Student Life know what a wonderful job they are doing, particularly under the firm but loving tutelage of your most lovely Editor-in-Chief Nora Rockwell Lawrence. All of us toiling in the college newspaper world should be so lucky to have such a benevolent leader.

I do hope that this missive finds its way to Ms. Lawrence.

Fondest regards,

Elana Berkowitz

Brown University

I write to you in order to express my support for the students who protested for the preservation of the Bernard Field Station. I admire their courage and determination in the face of an inflexible, and what proved to be an unsympathetic opposition. I was not the least surprised to find that the Claremont University Center called in the police to remove protestors because I have rarely, if ever, found those who run CUC to put student concerns before financial concerns and business deals. However, I am disheartened by Pomona’s administration’s choice to charge the protestors with violations of the Student Code.

I find it fascinating how much the question over the Bernard Field Station land-use has recently been presented as a "celebration" and a "social event." I am a great believer in protests as an American right and part of our democratic heritage. I’ve always liked the fact that if you go to Washington, DC, across from the White House in the park, there are always protesters advocating their causes. It seems to methat protests should be part of a beautiful White House setting and the President’s Office.