Letters et cetera

I loved seeing the “Trash Talk” announcement in the October [2007] issue of Arts & Sciences. When I was a third-year student I joined with others taking classes in the nascent Department of Environmental Sciences to form the Student Alliance for Virginia’s Environment. We funded our small-scale operation by collecting aluminum cans in cardboard boxes in the various buildings where we took classes (I covered the Economics Department) and delivering our collection to the metals recycling business in town. We teamed up with the City of Charlottesville and the Student Council for the first-ever “Sharing Charlottesville” day and carried out a huge, door-to-door newspaper collection drive. I still have the T-shirt.

What a great change in culture has taken place since 1989. Congratulations!

Christine Nasser Rolfes (Economics ’89)
Member, Washington State House of Representatives


As I read my January 2008 issue of Arts & Sciences I was puffed up with pride after the top half of page four where I learned in “U.Va.: Where great writers are made” that we were ranked by Atlantic magazine in the top 10 schools for graduate creative writing programs. Then I read “FREE FOOD” on the bottom half of the page. Even after reading it twice I was still scratching my head trying to determine its relevance.

The article starts off mentioning the annual “First Year Food Fest,” something I’ve never heard of before. I thought I was going to learn more about it as I read on, but the writer jumps off on a tangent about the first-year class composition by sex and race. Had I submitted the same words to my English professor a quarter century ago, it would have come back for a rewrite. What happened to those writing skills lauded by Atlantic Monthly at the top of the page?

Mike McGinn (Environmental Sciences ’84)


I was delighted to read the series of articles by Linda Kobert concerning studies of Monacan culture in central Virginia (A&S Online: “Beyond Jamestown,” May 9, 2007; “In the Cards,” May 9, 2007;“Lost Language,” May 23, 2007). From the perspective of philosophy of culture, these articles represent a very encouraging convergence between the interests of contemporary native communities and the academic professions of archaeology and ethnography. From a Virginia childhood, in the 1950s, one was vaguely aware of intriguing Tidewater tribal names, recorded in toponymy (and used indiscriminately at 4-H camp), such as Chickahominy, Mattaponi, Pamunkey, Paspahegh; the tribal names Shawnee and Tuscarora were prominently associated with the mountain region of Virginia, West Virginia and North Carolina, but nothing was brought to our attention about indigenous peoples of the Piedmont; indeed, nothing was made clear about any indigenous groups of Virginia and what became of them. Some of us did wonder then and did ask.

Now, as one who has professional academic interests in Native American cultures, I can more fully appreciate the efforts of these researchers in Arts & Sciences. Jeffrey Hantman should be congratulated for his archaeological research at the Monasukapanough site, especially in light of his collaboration with contemporary Monacan people. (Such collaboration was not the norm two decades ago.) Insofar as Thomas Jefferson was both archaeologist and ethnographer of indigenous culture (in his efforts to document Native American languages), it is fitting that the University of Virginia is enabling native scholars, Rhyannon Berkowitz and Karenne Wood, each to pursue research into their cultural history and traditional language. I eagerly look forward to learning more about all three of these fascinating and worthy projects.

Leroy N. Meyer (College ’69; MA Philosophy ’70; PhD Philosophy ’75)
Professor of Philosophy
University of South Dakota

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