LETTERS
"Was your writer thinking sub rosa?."

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Slate: blank. Face: red.
On page one of your December/00 issue, in the squib referring to the cover photo of President Randel, you say he is posed for "a tabula rosa portrait." The background, probably meant to be white, does have a slight violet tinge to it, but it is definitely not rose. Nor maroon either, although his University of Chicago tie certainly is. [ MORE ]

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Misleading fractals
Professor Andrew Abbott's usage of the word "fractal" is unconvincing ("Investigations," December/00). That word has been coined to have a specific meaning beyond that in "subdivision" and "similarity." [ MORE ]

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The play's the thing
A "Shakespeare course today…would tend to look at what kinds of plays he wrote at given political or social junctures and for which patrons or audiences. We're getting away from the notion of transcendent geniuses by inserting these works and their creators in as thick a context as we can reconstruct for their everyday life and relations."-Prof. Janel Mueller, dean of the humanities division, interviewed by the Magazine in its December/00 issue ("Chicago Journal"). [ MORE ]

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Equal responsibility
At the start of his letter ("Letters," December/00) objecting to the provision of day care for the children of female medical students, J. Curtis Kovacs has a little fun at the students' expense, suggesting that women who express surprise at their pregnancies are "physicians who don't know where babies come from." [ MORE ]

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Faulty thought on tenure, faculty
The two letters on tenure in the December/00 issue inspire two responses: The purpose of tenure is not only to protect professors from arbitrary administrators but also to protect them from their colleagues. [ MORE ]

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Correcting the record
Thank you very much for the piece on me and my book, The Zuni Enigma, in the "Alumni Newsmakers" section of the October/00 Magazine. Although the general outline of my life and the book are accurate, a few facts need correction: [ MORE ]

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UNext connections
I write out of concern stemming from an article published in Mother Jones, Jan.-Feb., 2000 issue, "Digital Diplomas," pp. 34 ff, in which the University of Chicago is mentioned as having signed an agreement with UNext.com (founded by Michael Milken). [ MORE ]

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Query: Isenberg's silent style
I am doing some research on Professor Meyer ("Mike") Isenberg, AB'35, PhD'40, and his teaching style. A member of the classics department, he taught in the College as an instructor, assistant professor, associate professor, and professor from 1946 through the '70s. He died in 1983. [ MORE ]

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Course redux
Strange that you state in "Mind over matter" ("Coursework," December/00) that Psychoneuroimmunology is a "newly developed undergraduate course"-I took that exact course when I was an undergraduate (1988, I think).

Bert Vaux, AB'90
Cambridge, Massachusetts

José Quintans, who team teaches Psychoneuroimmunology, has taught a course in Immunobiology in alternate years since Fall 1987.-Ed.

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