Ambassador remarks created unintended focus

I am writing in order to clarify the details of our recent event with the Turkish Student Association.

We invited Ambassador Tuluy Tanç to showcase the close ties between Turkey, the United States and Israel. The ambassador’s comments focused solely on the relations between those countries until one of the participants asked a question, at which point he presented the Turkish perspective on the 1915 events, which he called a “tragedy.”

We had specified in advance – and the ambassador agreed – that this issue was not to have been the focus of the event, and we wholeheartedly regret that the issue was allowed to overshadow the otherwise positive atmosphere of the evening. We also regret and apologize for any offense caused by the ambassador’s comments.

We have already reached out to the Armenian Student Association and to Armenian students at the university and have proposed that we jointly bring a speaker of their choice in order to highlight the close relations between the Armenian and Jewish communities in Armenia, Israel and elsewhere. While we, again, do not wish to make the 1915 events the focus of that program, we expect that the issue will be addressed in the context of the talk.

We hope members of the university community will join us in celebrating Armenian-Jewish and Armenian-Israeli relations and look forward to continuing to advance university understanding of regional dynamics in the Middle East, the Caucasus and elsewhere.

Jennifer CoganVice president for public affairsThe Pro-Israel Terrapin Alliance

Not all transfer experiences are negative

Two articles, “Most transfer students isolated,” and more recently “The woes of the transfer student”, have been very informative about exactly what it is like to be a transfer student. But, these two voices simply do not speak for the entire transfer student body.

I’m not here to say that the transfer process is easy, and that every experience is great. But I look more at the end result. When I transferred, I had to wait six months to get accepted because of having no math credits, lost 12 out of my 63 credits (including the math credits!), did not get housing, and since I lost credits and went below 60, had to park in the Arena Parking Garage. I had what most people would consider a “bad transfer experience.”

But I don’t see it that way. I was so unhappy at my last school that the exhausting transfer process was not only worth it, but enjoyable just to get out of there. Within a week of being accepted I found housing on Fraternity Row at Phi Kappa Tau, the fraternity I am now a member of. I have been to every single football game, tailgate, basketball game, soccer game, and as many parties as I could possibly attend. I love every single day I walk across this campus and would not want to be anywhere else.

I know very well how difficult it is to transfer, but I also know you take away exactly what you put into something. I am determined to take away the best college experience that I possibly can from the University of Maryland.

It might sound cliché, but the Machiavellian principle applies to the transfer process for me: The ends justify the means.

Matt CassanoJuniorHistory

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