Keeping Up Standards at Cal State Northridge

The article “Post-Quake Patience Wears Thin at CSUN” (May 1) was very one-sided regarding attitudes on our campus.

While it’s true we’ve faced many obstacles following the Jan. 17 earthquake, education continues to take place on our campus. In fact, by and large, attitudes remain optimistic.

It is untrue that professors have adopted relaxed standards. While some research-intensive projects have not been assigned as they normally would have been, equally challenging projects have been assigned in their place.

To print the opinion that one can’t get a good education at CSUN this semester without printing the other side is irresponsible and demeaning to both the students and professors who are working hard to retain the quality of education that is expected while coping with adverse circumstances.

Education not only comes from books. It also evolves out of facing and overcoming new challenges. That being the case, we are undoubtedly getting an even better education this semester at Cal State Northridge.

JENNIFER CONSTANTINE

Northridge

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Your story on Cal State Northridge after the earthquake leaves out some of the more remarkable aspects of the recovery.

Short shrift was give to its record-breaking pace. While problems exist, and these were the focus of your article, great things are also happening.

Knowing most precisely about my particular situation, let me present it as an example of the amazing transformation that is indeed occurring at CSUN.

Within a couple of weeks of the quake, I was back operating my approximately $2 million in programs, which involve scores of students and hundreds of teachers. This was made possible by my immediate relocation to excellent modular facilities provided and constructed by our administration and colleagues with extraordinary support by the staff.

My students are now actually more productive than before the quake and like the new facilities better than the old.

Enthusiasm and the spirit of challenge are not dead as you suggested. They are alive and well and stronger than ever. This may not be the case for everyone, of course, but it is for the award-winning biology department, recently ranked fourth in the United States among its class of comprehensive universities. Perhaps that’s because our students are actively involved in research; more than 100 in my lab alone co-authored publications.

Our department is recruiting four new faculty to service our growing numbers of majors, and they are not turned off by the current condition of the university. The challenge provided by the quake is bringing out more enthusiasm on the part of our faculty, staff and students than I’ve seen in years.

STEVE OPPENHEIMER

Northridge

Oppenheimer is director of the Center for Cancer and Developmental Biology at Cal Sate Northridge.