To the Editor:

I was stunned to read comments from the Rev. W. David Lee DIV ’93 in the article (“CCNE, Lee and unions join up at meeting,” 4/3). According to your article, he said that when he was approached about running for Yale Corporation trustee by the union-funded Connecticut Center for a New Economy, he said yes in part because he thought that any New Haven resident could do the job of bringing city issues to the Corporation table.

As a Yale alumnus and lifelong resident of New Haven, I couldn’t disagree more. All people who really care about New Haven and Yale University should want the best and brightest to serve as trustees and should support people who will care for the institution and its future as a whole, not serve narrow interests. I disagree strongly with Lee that anyone can do the job.

That comment, and the fact that he represents the short-term, narrow interests of one constituency, proves to me that he is clearly not someone who is qualified for the job.

John Lapides ’72

april 3, 2002