LET TERS
Carolina Failed to Rise
To Bunting’s Ethical Level
The football team’s records over the past
five years, and this year especially, have been a
disappointment. The dismissal of Coach John
Bunting ’ 72 and the article in the Review
regarding it, however, reflect our missing a
clear opportunity for the University to rise
to the ethical level of this great man. I feel
that he deserved many more seasons as
coach of his alma mater, due to his consistently prioritizing the development of
responsible character among his student athletes. With his job in jeopardy, he kept a
player off the field against Virginia due to
unacceptable behavior. He made no excuses
for the impact of a starting player’s facing
prosecution for actions before the current
semester that necessitated his being off the
team (the player is now enrolled in another
Division I-A university in North Carolina).
His emphasis on proper behavior and high
academic responsibility was consistent.
The University has chosen the desire for
chest-thumping over
principles that contribute positively to
our culture. With the
recent reduction in
tuition for out-of-
state scholarship students that the political
action committee with ties to UNC has
engineered, caving in to the “swagger”
mentality of athletics is even less of a surprise. This measure, which failed in last
year’s legislative session until inserted discreetly into the overall budget bill, requires
an extra appropriation of always scarce
funds to supplant related lost revenue.
Although the timing could be coincidental, I
suspect that the groundbreaking for the
new headquarters of the Educational Foundation had more of a foul smell to it than
usually comes from disturbing rotting subterranean vegetative matter for a building’s
firm footing.
Mike Massey ’ 72 (’ 74 MED)
Durham
Physics Faculty, ’ 71 Alumni
Reconnect at Homecoming
I was one of 10 former teachers whom
our class of 1971 physics alumni invited to
join them at The Carolina Club during
their reunion on Oct. 11. For me, this
delightful evening spent with former students was particularly timely. Earlier that
same day at a meeting of the American
Physical Society, I had heard a statistical
report that most physics majors leave the
academic fold after graduation and enter
the private sector. Many go on to careers
having wide societal impact, often in fields
not closely related to physics. It was
emphasized, therefore, that faculty should
not try to train students to follow in their
own academic footsteps.
The careers that 10 returning 1971
alumni described to us, and the ways they
have used their Carolina physics education,
are both varied and impressive. I had
reviewed my old grade book for this class
of students before attending the reunion
