Letters to the Editor

November 2004

Since when is a piece about a gay graduate's "marriage" a newsworthy article for the Spreadsheet department of your magazine? If you must publish such "news," the ClassNotes section is a much more appropriate spot.

R. K. WINGO, MBA '57
Gainesville, VA

The picture and description of the same-sex couple and their twins in the August 2004 issue reflected questionable judgment by the editors. The legal definition of marriage has remained the same for centuries. It's the joining of a man and a woman. Until that is changed by state law, such marriages as this one are illegal, not legal as represented by the magazine. This has now been confirmed by the California Supreme Court.

LAWRENCE M. TILTON, MBA '51
Carlsbad, CA

Editor's response: The caption that accompanied the photo of two men exchanging vows at San Francisco City Hall could have given more consideration to the time lapse between writing and publication. When we wrote the caption, the local government had decided to grant official licenses for same-sex marriages in San Francisco, and the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court had upheld same-sex marriages in that state. Since then, the California Supreme Court invalidated the San Francisco documents, and judges in Oregon and Washington have declared unconstitutional their state laws banning same-sex marriages. By the time you read this, other court decisions could be rendered on this controversial issue.

I was thrilled to read Dean Joss's column "Why We Want Some Early Career Students." What the dean might not remember is how flexible and supportive the GSB was to those of us who were admitted directly out of undergraduate college. Accepted by the GSB in early 1980, while still a 19-year old at Dartmouth, I was offered the option to come right away or to defer my admission one or two years. Even better, the GSB offered to distribute (at no charge) up to 300 copies of my resume to firms that specifically were looking for pre-MBAs. What a deal! I quickly turned down Harvard Business School, which insisted I had to enroll right away, and sent the GSB my resumes. Weeks later, I was hired, for two years, by a tiny and largely unknown consulting firm: Bain and Co.

JOHN C. WILEN, MBA '84
Frisco, Texas

From the Editor

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Letters to the Editor