Letters to the Chronicle

The last word from Rob Brooks

Dear Campus Chronicle old friend,

Good-bye, and thank you for your many years of good and faithful service to the campus community.

When I first came to UMass in 1964, we were both young. (You aged more gracefully than I.) As the Weekly Bulletin, you were mimeographed and coming of age, and so was I (except for the "being mimeographed" part.) You helped to orient me and to inform me what was going on, when, and where. An invaluable service to a neophyte administrator whose job description, in part, required knowing what was going on.

In my middle and later years, we both became more sophisticated (at least you did) when you metamorphosed into The Campus Chronicle. As the campus grew, sources of information and communication were harder to come by, and to rely on - and thus, you became all the more invaluable - if only to confirm what it is I thought I already knew, or had heard, or thought I had heard (especially). It certainly beat having to check with multiple sources via the electronic world.

In retirement (2001) you were even more of greater service - for, for whatever reasons, I wanted to stay connected to the University in some ways, and you were the primary source by which I was able to do so.

So I will miss you, and your dedicated staff of editors and office support. You can be assured in retirement that your job was well done - and although you in no way deserved to be "liquidated" - be assured that your passing will not go unnoticed. And, as is so often the case, I can also most guarantee that your passing will be all the more grieved as time goes on.

Your epitaph may have been best expressed by Bill Moyers: "The printed page conveys information and commitment, and requires active involvement. Television conveys emotion and experience, and it's very limited in what it can do logically. It's an existential experience - there - and then gone."
Thank you Fitz, Sarah, Stan and Chris.

ROBERT N. BROOKS
retired director,
Visitor Relations

Loss of Chronicle is a 'tragic consequence'

I am writing with a heavy heart to express my gratitude -- and I am certain that of a great number of faculty and staff as well as those who work here at the Renaissance Center -- for the superb achievement you and your staff have accomplished for our campus with limited funding and support. As someone who once wrote for the Providence Journal and The New York Times, I have admired, from the very first, your evenhandedness, your comprehensiveness, and your fairness in reporting on our campus, and the imagination and wit that you have also shown to lift our spirits even when you inform us. I would have known far less about my fellow workers without the Chronicle; I would have missed a number of events, including on occasion defenses of dissertations, and I would have had far less opportunity to be proud of the campus's record. Your newspaper has been as crucial as it has been invaluable -- and since it was also read regularly by our President's Office, our trustees, and the state Legislature, it was our very best record of what we do, and at times, why we do it.

The loss of the Campus Chronicle is a tragic consequence for our campus.

ARTHUR F. KINNEY
professor of English and
director, Renaissance Center

Chronicle and Sherer's photos will be missed

I regret that The Campus Chronicle will cease to be. You have played a crucial role in making this large university feel more like a community. I learned much about the work of many others on campus, people whom I would not have known of otherwise.

I appreciated the clarity of the writing. I especially enjoyed Stan Sherer's photographs. He found the humanity and poetry in the most prosaic of situations. It was a joy and a privilege to see the work of a skilled and caring photographer issue after issue.

The Campus Chronicle kept us all - faculty and staff - in touch with each other's thoughts and doings. We will not be the same without the service you provided the campus.

JULIUS LESTER
professor, Judaic and Near Eastern Studies

'A mighty sad day'

It is a mighty sad day to see the Chronicle, our only in-house paper for news and PR, done in by budget cuts. It, I predict, will be sorely missed.

Thank you for all your years of service to the campus community and for a paper that did a great job at UMass.

JAKE BISHOP
director,
Massachusetts Higher Education
Consortium

'Deep and profound sadness'

There are no words to express the deep and profound sadness I feel for the demise of the Campus Chronicle. This excellent source of information illuminated the POSITIVE aspects of the campus, yet was tempered with a no-nonsense dose of "the real deal."

This commitment to telling the Amherst campus' story without whitewash is valued by the University's advocates as a vital component of the Ambassadors Network/Advocacy Programs and has aided in its growth and development over the past 15 years. I especially have valued the vast institutional memory of Fitz, and the collaborative and creative spirit of the Chronicle staff as a whole.

Perhaps the next iteration of the Campus Chronicle will be the flagship campus' phoenix rising from the ashes of budget cuts. I hope sooner rather than later.

CHERYL L. DUKES
coordinator,
Advocacy Programs

Best wishes and appreciation

The Campus Chronicle has fostered a sense of community through good times and bad. Daniel Fitzgibbons and his staff have served us well, and they are entitled to our unstinting appreciation and best wishes for the future.

JOHN MOORE
professor,
Psychology Department