Previous

||

This Issue

||

Next

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Lions Den

I enjoyed Alex Sachare ’71’s “Within the Family” essay in the November CCT, in which he remembered Ferris Booth Hall and the Lions Den. I was in the first class to move into FBH in fall 1959 — I lived on the 11th floor and thought I was on top of the world. (To a Montanan, FBH seemed a skyscraper.)

I have two marvelous memories of the Lions Den. I was at the cash register in 1960 when Bill Mazeroski iced the World Series for the Pirates with a homer to left that broke the hearts of the New Yorkers around me. And three springs later, my girlfriend (Margaret French ’64 Barnard) proposed to me in one of the LD booths. I accepted. To this day, she says it was the other way around, but it doesn’t matter. We were married on June 1, 1963, in St. Paul’s Chapel, and we are working on year 42.

Mike Bowler ’63
Baltimore

During my sophomore year (1961), I had a job cleaning the Lions Den at 7 a.m. every day — I swept the floor and wet-wiped the tables. In return for doing that, I did not pay for the meal plan at the John Jay Hall dining room.

My alarm clock was set to go off early every morning. I didn’t realize it until later, but I guess my three suite-mates (Harvey Lefkowitz ’65, Arnold Lesser ’65 and Art Lew ’64) weren’t too happy about that. We were housed in the Kings Crown Hotel off Amsterdam around 115th Street, due to the scarcity of dorm rooms. One morning, I was awakened much earlier than usual by a hidden alarm clock. At intervals, four or five other hidden alarm clocks went off. My roommates had set these alarms to get back at me for waking them early every day.

I had access to the jukebox while cleaning the Lions Den. I usually played the song “Yellow Bird,” which begins “Yellow bird way up in banana tree.” Now, whenever I hear that song, it brings me back to those early mornings in the Lions Den.

Jeff Sol ’64
Kailua, Hawaii

Designated Drivers

Thanks so much for doing an alumni profile on me and featuring Doctors for Designated Driving (November CCT). I have received many e-mails from alumni congratulating me and offering their well-wishes. Signatures to our petition have risen at a quickened pace since the story has run.

Thanks again for helping my organization get off the ground. Together, I think we can save thousands of lives.

Howard Forman ’01
New York City

Student-Athletes

We take issue with your response to John McCormack’s complaint about the use of the phrase “student-athlete” (September CCT). We agree with him that the term is disingenuous, originally applied to support the dubious academic credentials of recruits to Division I football factories, whose graduation rates were (and in many cases still are) miniscule. Whether the term originated in admissions offices, in newspaper sports pages or in the creative imagination of a sports information office is immaterial.

We also disagree with its acceptance by your faculty consultants. Sports fans know that it is a euphemism unrelated to academic pursuits. It should not be used to describe Columbia athletes, unless you describe other Columbia students as student-musicians, student-writers and editors, student-actors and even student-physicists. We recognize the time commitment of athletes to practice, games and travel, creating additional stress on their academic obligations. However, other students, described above, also spend much time in their chosen extracurricular activities; our athletes are not unique in that regard.

Herbert Mark M.D. ’42
White Plains, N.Y.
Melvin Hershkowitz M.D. ’42
Providence. R.I.

[Editor’s note: The authors are class correspondent and president, respectively, of the Class of 1942.]

Previous

||

This Issue

||

Next