Jordan River Forum

Brand's gone, have mercy on the NCAA\nUpon hearing the news of Myles Brand leaving IU for the NCAA, I told my wife we need to start budgeting again for contributions to the University. After approximately each of the 15 to 20 phone solicitations for alumni contributions to IU, I told the caller to not call back until Myles Brand has left his position because I have stopped giving to the University. Each caller has mentioned they hear a lot of such comments.\nMyles Brand did very little good for IU and was often wrong in his decisions for the University, in my opinion. The manner by which he fired Bob Knight was only a small part of my dislike for Brand. He said no person should be bigger than the University (i.e. Bob Knight), yet the way he handled Knight's firing, he put himself in a position of being "bigger than the University."\nWhat a hypocrite.\nI agree with most of the negative criticisms offered by the e-mails and letters received since Brand's announcement to leave. I can only hope he is not as destructive to the NCAA as he was to Indiana. The new president can only be better.\nAs a former student leader of Indiana University, I would hope that the Board's choice for interim president would be Kenneth R.R. Gros Louis.\nHere is a man who selflessly dedicated himself to making Indiana University one of the top institutions of higher learning in the country. Chancellor Gros Louis was dedicated to students when he served as IU Bloomington's Chancellor, dedicated to making sure that students had the best tools for learning and a well-rounded college experience. He truly holds the spirit of IU in his heart and would be the best candidate to maintain Myles Brand's momentum.\nAnd if we are all "being lucky," much like another "interim" president 65 years ago named Herman B Wells, Kenneth Gros Louis will be installed as the next president of Indiana University and carry on the excellence for which the institution is known.\nDeath penalty equally deplorable on the homefront\nJessica Halverson is right (staff editorial, Oct. 16, "U.S. should take a stand"). The eminent stoning of Amina Lawal is deplorable and not right. But as a country whose legal system routinely executes people, the United States doesn't have much ground to stand on. Halverson states that "stoning is an inhumane and disgusting way to die, especially at the hands of a legal system." I hope she doesn't think electrocution and paralyzing injection at the hands of the state are humane, especially since we know that many death row inmates are wrongfully convicted. State sponsored murder of innocent people -- now that is inhumane.\nDeath penalty equally deplorable on the homefront\nI am horrified that you would have the nerve to even consider printing garbage such as Rory Starks' "The Real American Zero" (Oct. 16). It is one thing to agree or disagree with the war on Iraq, but to compare George Bush to the hijackers of Sept. 11, and essentially Osama bin Laden, is just offensive to this nation. I believe that Clinton's butchering of our defense system and multiple refusals to accept bin Laden for trial when he had been detained by other nations definitely encouraged the Sept. 11 attacks. But I would never stoop to the level to which the Democrats are stooping by comparing him to the terrorists. I hope next time you will consider the magnitude of the idiocy in your articles before you print them.