"Wood Center"
I read with great interest the story by Nick Brewer about the controversial naming of the "Wood Center" (March 20).
When I first arrived at UAF as a faculty member in 2003, I was extremely perplexed about why there was no student union on campus, until I realized that the "Wood Center" was supposed to fulfill that function.
This was the first time I had ever seen a student center that did not have the word "student" or "union" somewhere in its name, and it did not seem right at all. It still does not seem right, actually.
But I wonder if there is even more to the naming of UAF's student union after William Ransom Wood? I once heard an interesting tale about this from a former UAF student, who had been around the place for about 13 years and was full of fascinating underground lore about UAF (and whose stories really made the place come alive for me).
His version of the "Wood Center" naming story claimed that Mr. Wood himself had actually opposed the building of the center, making it all the more ironic that the building would be named after him. I always wondered how much truth there was to this story. Can your crack investigative journalists dig into this history and find out more?
Thanks for continuing to be a bright spot in my UAF experience.
Patty Gray
Assistant Professor
Anthropology
"The Impressario"
I'm writing in regard to the article about the Music Department's performance of Mozart's "The Impressario" two weekends ago. I'm a music major studying clarinet performance, and I played in the pit orchestra for both performances of the opera.
The article published March 27 about the opera is an embarrassment to the Music Department, the Sun Star and the University of Alaska due to the illiteracy of the reporter. The reporter clearly failed to read it over after simply copying the program for her article. The name of the opera was even misspelled in the title of the article (Ed: The headline was my fault).
It is very difficult to read, and I can't believe that the Sun Star would allow something like that to be published.
April Jaillet
Music major, senior
