Letters to the Editor

Faculty Senate did NOT!

Thanks for your coverage of Thursday's Faculty Senate approval of legislation on distance learning. However, we would like to correct two fundamental misimpressions conveyed by the headline and text of Friday's (Oct. 26) front-page article.

First, the Faculty Senate did not approve any distance-learning undergraduate degrees or minors, nor did it even endorse the concept of such degrees.

Second, the approved legislation does nothing to bring us closer to the existence of UW distance-learning undergraduate degrees. Until now, deans could have set up distance-learning versions of bachelor's degrees or minors with only the stroke of a pen. Under the new legislation, if a distance-learning degree is proposed, it will require approval at department, school/college, Faculty Senate and University levels. And even then, the degree or minor would be accepted only provisionally and re-reviewed in six years.

The Faculty Senate has not licensed distance-learning degrees. What it has asserted in this overdue legislation is that all courses and degree programs, whether distance-learning or classroom-based, must be approved by the normal, full review processes.

There will be no shortcuts for distance learning.

Steve Buck

chair, Faculty Council on Educational Outreach

Doug Wadden

chair, Faculty Council on Academic Standards

UW Pi Tau Sigma opposes ASUW pro-war resolution

Phi Nu, the UW Seattle's Pi Tau Sigma's Mechanical Engineering Honor Society, discussed the idea of supporting or not supporting the pro-war resolution before the ASUW Senate. As would be expected from any student organization, there were different opinions and certainly no consensus on the issue. But all of us did agree that, in this issue, one must make up his or her own intellectual and moral judgment. To try and characterize the diverse opinions of UW students in one statement in such a divisive moral and intellectual issue is absurd. We hereby oppose this resolution that would claim to speak for the students as a whole. We feel the diversity of opinions in our board shows the diversity of students in general.

Mark Capellaro

president, Pi Tau Sigma Mechanical Engineering Student Honor Society

senior, mechanical engineering

Visit the Mormons

I did not agree with the recent article on Mormons (Oct. 25). Could you please print the address to the "Mormon" institute building (3925 15th Ave. N.E.) for those who may be interested in following up on the article?

Amber Cannon

freshman, music performance