WELCOME ABOARD
On behalf of the Santa Cruz Welcoming Network, I would like to express our gratitude to the Good Times Santa Cruz and to Josué Monroy for excellent journalism! He took the time to really understand the stories of the people he interviewed, making the Aug. 8 cover story personal and inspiring. This is much needed in a time when our new neighbors and other refugees are under assault.
We also appreciate the depth in which Mr. Monroy explored the Welcoming Network, with our unique all-volunteer structure of self-organized welcoming teams. Because of your publication our numbers have grown…and one of our new neighbors now has a safe, temporary, studio apartment to live in while she continues to create a new life here in Santa Cruz! We’re celebrating our community!
Paul Johnston
RATE MY PROFESSOR
This is a letter to the editor, responding to Ms Schembari’s 9/25 article “Is Rate My Professor Fair?”
I was interviewed and Ms. Schembari’s article left out key facts and gave a wrongly slanted impression of my thoughts and teaching at Cabrillo College. I, in fact, DO care very much what students think about my teaching, but I cannot control what is written on RMP. And it was a past student (who liked my teaching), who, contrary to the article, told me it was not worth my frustration to read what’s in RMP.
Also, I asked Ms Schembari what were the RMP commenters unhappy about. She said “mostly on religion.” I’m a scientist, teaching science to GE students, and it is vital they learn intellectual self-confidence, and how damaging it is when authoritarians in Western religion demand you give up reason, evidence, and the light bulb of knowledge.
The history of most religions’ treatment of scientists has, we know, been bloody and appalling. I invite you to my “Chapter 0,” linked on my Cabrillo website. It’s tragic that some religious students show great intolerance to open minded exposition of how to respect the human mind and human nature, and save their feelings for RMP rather than classroom discussion. We profs are evaluated by peers and by all of our classroom’s students every ~3 years, where my evals have been weighted praiseworthy by the large majority of my students; true for my 38 years at Cabrillo.
Richard Nolthenius
