Re: Scully lambasts administrators' proposals to raze Div School

I'm not a real doofus, but I play one at a national laboratory. (BAISLEY@fndcd.fnal.gov)
Thu, 17 Oct 1996 23:09:17 -0500


> YDN Staff Reporter
>
> Calling Yale a "mean little Yankee enterprise," history of art professor
> Vincent Scully blasted University officials for considering demolition of
> the crumbling Divinity School.

Call me a nitpicker, but I think this lead-in completely changes the tone and
import of the Professor's words. He called Yale no such thing, and by quoting
the phrase in this out-of-context way, the article immediately prejudices the
reader against him. Leaving out the word "business" intensifies the impression
of small-minded whininess. I had a much different response to the original
wording:

> It pains me to see this greatest of all institutions of teaching and
> learning, which I have loved all my life, behaving like the mean little
> Yankee business enterprise it all too often pretends to be.

Clearly, Dr. Scully believes "Yale" to be a "mlYbe" only insofar as it denies
itself and its heritage. And his complaint is aimed at a much narrower target
than the institution as a whole (witness "you", "your administration"). If this
article were from one of the big papers, it would smack of sly coercion. In
this case I think it's more undergraduate ineptitude than anything else. The J
School and Law School haven't been eyeing the Div School's space, have they?

Wayne