Thanks for the piece on Matt Severson '11 and the School Fund ("True Grit," July/August). I've been looking for a cause to support financially, and I can't think of a better one than an organization that was started by a Brown student and helps girls and boys complete their education. I hope the organization continues to grow exponentially.

Mara Gottlieb '93
Southport, Conn.
mara@talkingchanges.com

I enjoyed the July/August issue, especially the stories of those exceptional graduating seniors who overcame bumps in the road on their journeys through Brown. However, one sentence in the 50th reunion album on page 50 I found to be very distasteful: "When the class of 1961 gathered for its 50th Brown reunion this year, the presidents of Brown and the United States were both African Americans." Journalists everywhere should stop using African American or Asian American. I don't give a hoot about where a person's ancestors came from or a person's color. In our land of immigrants, a person's color or which continent a person's ancestors came from do not matter.

The two things that do matter are a person's qualifications for the job and his or her religious beliefs or philosophy. These point to a person's character and indicate whether the president of a company, a university, or a country will bring enhancement or distraction.

Religious beliefs and/or philosophy and qualifications are important. Ancestry and color are not, not in the United States of America.

Joan Henry Plumb '51
Uxbridge, Mass.
joan99206@gmail.com