University of Virginia Library

Changing Climate

Your editorial "The Lively
Ones" (Sept. 25, 1968) observed
correctly the changing climate of
state Democratic politics. Through
a careless choice of metaphor and
the chauvinistic aversion The
Cavalier Daily exhibits toward
anything un-UVa., you have
presented a distorted picture of one
of the candidates.

T. Marshall Hahn can be no
streach of the imagination be
placed in the Conservative/Reactionary
political spectrum.
Admittedly, Henry Howell does
stand to the left in Virginia politics;
but to imply that Marshall Hahn is
significantly to his right is a
misrepresentation of the VPI
president.

More to the point, is the
catagorical dismissal of Hahn
simply because he is: 1) not a
graduate of this institution, 2) is
affiliated with VPI, and 3) is less
hirsute than most.

In the short time he has been at
Tech he has revitalized and
developed a "new college" into a
highly respectable university. A
recent state poll indicated that VPI
was ranked over this institution as
the first choice of Virginia students
seeking college entrance.

Irrelevant to his candidacy,
through of seeming concern to The
Cavalier Daily, are his academic
credentials which outstrip the other
candidates. More important,
however, has been his working
relationship with the General
Assembly in which VPI has received
more appropriation funds than has
an equally competitive U. Va.

Presiding over the '66-'67
Virginia Metropolitan Areas Study
Commission, which popularily bore
his name, he demonstrated his
knowledge of urbanizing Virginia
and suggested some radically
innovative solutions.

If he decides to run, and makes
it to the Mansion, he will be a most
able and exciting Governor. Indeed,
something good can come out of
Blacksburg.