To the Editor:

Nothing tickles me more than seeing so-called liberals, such as Jordan Trevino, defending the spokesman for a medieval theocracy that delighted in beheading misbehaving women, toppling stone walls onto homosexuals and harboring the world’s leading terror network (“University should be forum for open exchange, dialogue,” 4/4).

Trevino’s call for open dialogue is all well and good, but what he fails to see is that by admitting Rahmatullah Hashemi, Yale tacitly endorses his former actions.

There is a strong precedent for prestigious universities to deny admission to prospective students on moral grounds. For instance, Harvard University and Stanford University recently revoked the admission of a number of business school students who inappropriately accessed their admissions status ahead of time. What is so outrageous about Yale denying admission to Hashemi for crimes of far greater magnitude?

Contrary to Trevino’s insinuation, Hashemi’s critics are not interested in stifling dialogue. Rather, we are interested in upholding a moral standard that the rest of this university seems to have forgotten.

William Wilson ’09

April 4, 2006