I’m writing to express dismay with this semester’s first issue of The Simpsonian.

A stranger reading the paper would have been hard pressed to imagine that anyone at Simpson ever attends or teaches a class, engages in scholarship, research, or other creative work, or is aware of any of the political and economic issues facing our country.

A quick review of the contents yields the following: a front page story on the consultants hired to improve “space allocation”; another front page story on the consultants hired to improve the Web site, backed up on page two with an editorial supporting the expenditure that it involves and a “Storm on the Street” feature suggesting that most students probably don’t much care one way or the other.

What they do care about is, perhaps, suggested by the remaining contents: a column on game shows, a column on predictions for 2002 (which – thank you, David Morain – did at least mention the ‘war on terrorism’), a column from Lindsey Masters, who promised us more columns on “dating and relationships” in Mexico, a piece on the Simp’s own Web site; columns on a drunk-driving prevention program and the popularity on campus of Columbia coats; another piece on game shows, this time featuring a Simpson student as contestant; a piece on getting your car ready for winter; and three pages of sports. The rest was filler from college news agencies.

Sadly, I guess I have to admit that the paper probably gives my hypothetical stranger-reader a fairly accurate view of the atmosphere here. Simpson, what a college!

Todd Lieber

Professor of English