University of Virginia Library

Letters To The Editor

Hooded Bravado

I write concerning the letter
in the March 12 Cavalier Daily
entitled "Handouts." The
authors commit a moral if not
a technical violation of the
Cavalier Daily rule against
unsigned letters. At any rate
the Registrar's Office could
produce no record of the
alleged signer "Howard Arnold
George, Grad. A&S, '71."

The authors evidently made
up a name behind which they
could mask and hood
themselves in their collective
bravado. People who "sheet
up" behind a false name in
order to vilify a black professor
hardly deserve an answer, but
in their letter "Howard Arnold
George" made some scurrilous
misstatements about Professor
Houston Baker that stand in
need of correction.

First of all, their data about
the progress of black-white
relations in America contains
no room for the moral fact of
their sneak assault. Secondly,
they refer to the "bounty" of
the University, as if professors
who teach and conduct
research pursue a profession
that merits no salary payment.

I am pleased to report that
Mr. Baker is a duly elected and
duly paid member of this
faculty. He is in fact a member
of the Center for Advanced
Studies, where his research
activity constitutes a major
part of his assigned obligation
to the University.

In France, as in this
country, he has conducted
original research that has won
him national recognition, in
which this University
automatically shares and from
which the University and the
Commonwealth derive benefit.

Mr. Baker is currently on
research assignment after
carrying an extra teaching load
in the fall term. He is not on
sabbatical leave, and it is worth
noting, despite the assurance of
"Howard Arnold George" to
the contrary, that there are no
sabbatical leaves at this
University.