Editor, Daily Nexus,

If Katie Fry feels so ill at ease by her professor’s anti-Bush comments (“Reader’s Voice: Leave Your Political Agenda Behind, We Pay You To Teach,” Daily Nexus, Jan. 11), she’s really got some growing up to do. News flash, Katie: At a populous university like UCSB, you might just come into contact with opinions and points of view that directly clash with yours. Getting passive-aggressively huffy over hearing offhand boilerplate remarks doesn’t really point to the security of your own beliefs.

The last time I checked, in this country any professor, or anyone else for that matter, had the right to make a fool of themselves by randomly spouting off undercooked political rhetoric anywhere or any time – be it on cable news, from a concert stage, at the head of a lecture hall, or in the Daily Nexus. Everyone on both sides is doing it these days, and taking offense seems very thin-skinned and naive on your part. Unless, of course, the College Republicans put you up to it. Look, the education that you paid for isn’t made-to-order, but, if you get your money’s worth, you’ll definitely be able to endure your professors’ political harping. Remember, they have to fight over tenure, publishing and a relatively low salary just for the privilege of telling you that the president sucks. How many conservative intellectuals would give up their cushy op-ed columns, talk radio gigs and think-tank jobs to do that, and without an expensive lecture-circuit gig in Campbell Hall?

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