To the Editor:

It strikes me that Jowei Chen ’03 (“University should encourage offensive views,” 11/1) puts the case a bit too strongly in his guest column.

Setting aside his actual argument for others who are more interested in free speech issues to discuss, I will just point out that using the terms “Soviet-style” and “chilling” to describe what occurred is juvenile.

This juvenility, of course, is typical of the level of discourse on Yale’s campus, at least among undergraduates. Perhaps it is the common mark of all students our age, but I think we should expect better of ourselves.

I would recommend that Chen save his hyperbole for another day.

If he gets so worked up about some seniors “suppressing” a freshman practical joke, what will he have left in the tanks next time a president suspends habeas corpus?

C. Wallace DeWitt ’03

November 1, 2001

The writer is a contributing reporter for the Yale Daily News