To the Editor:

Thanks again, 13 years later, to Suzanne Wofford, whose English 129 course taught me to read between lines.

A close reading of Maureen O’Keefe Doran’s March 21 letter to all Yale alumni about the upcoming Yale Corporation election (“AYA launches Web site for Corporation election,” 3/26) reveals some interesting biases. It is true that the Rev. W. David Lee’s DIV ’93 “very active campaign” for alumni fellow is “unprecedented” and “contrary to tradition,” and that he was not placed on the ballot “in customary fashion.” It was revealing that Doran listed many of Maya Lin’s ’81 ARC ’86 accomplishments, as the anointed Association of Yale Alumni candidate, and none of Lee’s. And I was left wondering why she “wanted to alert” alumni that they might be contacted by “other groups — now engaged in this election.”

I love Yale, and am grateful for the undergraduate education it provided. But there can be a fine line between respect for tradition and a close-minded unwillingness to listen to minority voices. Doran crossed that line.

Paul Johansen ’88

March 29, 2002