Dear North Wind Editor: Living in Marquette, it is easy to become accustomed to the untouched beauty surrounding us, but we can’t forget that this place needs protection. With climate change on our...

Dear Editor,  Oftentimes our young generations are told the world is in their hands. Though what do we do when the world placed in our hands is on fire in some regions and extreme droughts in others?...

Several weeks ago, Northern Michigan University’s Board of Trustees announced the appointment of Brock Tessman, deputy commissioner of higher education for the Montana State University system, as NMU’s...

Several months ago, in a letter to the editor defending Northern Michigan University’s decision to remove Luther West’s name from the physical structure now known only as The Science Building, I issued...

The NMU Board of Trustees, and now the NMU Foundation, have sullied the memory of Luther S. West, professor emeritus of biology at NMU from 1938 to 1965. Ignoring decades of dedication to academic research,...

It’s important to recognize the disparity in treatment received by Dotson, on the one hand, and the treatment received by Greer and Brundage, on the other hand. Greer and Brundage have violated the constitutional and federal statutory rights of NMU students on multiple occasions over the past decade and a half, including illegally discriminating against students with mental disorders—but have not received any disciplinary actions themselves from the university.

This is sent with profound sadness and concern over NMU’s hasty decision to erase all traces  of Dr. Luther West from it’s campus. As a relative by marriage, I testify to the character of the man I knew for 36 years.

The Northern Michigan University Board of Trustees made the right decision when it voted last month to remove Dr. Luther West’s name from the edifice formerly known as West Science—now denominated simply as the Science Building. This action communicates to the general public, and to the NMU community in particular, that the university considers the value of an inclusive, pluralistic society to be a fundamental and paramount one.

During the last 20 years of his life, I got to know my grandfather Luther West very well, and was even his guardian in his last incapacitated years. I also became aware of his reputation. All who knew him liked, admired and respected him.

I am writing this letter because I believe that I am one of few people alive who knew West well. I grew up with his youngest son and spent as much time at the West house as my own.

Doctor Luther West—a former Northern Michigan University biology professor who openly supported the promotion of “conservative eugenic legislation and eugenic administration” in the 1920s—is a wholly “blameless” person. At least, that’s what Philip Niswonger seems to argue in his recent letter to the editor. But his letter to the editor is entirely unconvincing, as it solely consists of a series of nonsensical non sequiturs.

Now, if you don’t have a child please try to imagine if you did. We can all agree college can be hard, but imagine raising a child at the same time.