To the Editor:

I am a retired member of the history department who loved my 37 years teaching about Asia with so many bright students, including the ones who wore beer T-shirts and sometimes pretended to be dumb. It made me optimistic about our country’s ability to solve our problems in the future.

This surely explains why I am so disappointed to read yet again of a large gathering on campus. Does the pledge you signed to abide by community safeguards mean nothing to you? Why are you ignoring standard medical advice? Why does President Mandel have to talk about “medical amnesty?” If you went to the party for the beer, are you in fact dumb?

Please let your future conduct reassure a poor old pensioner,

Peter Frost

Peter Frost is a professor emeritus of international studies.