UC Riverside
“Student’s Triumph Offers a Lesson,” March 20.
Sandy Banks’ column profiling a member of El Camino High School’s championship academic decathlon team included the statement that “the brainiacs know it may spell the difference between getting into UCLA or winding up at UC Riverside.” As a 1981 graduate of UC Riverside, I strongly object to this oddly disparaging comparative reference.
Yes, UC-Riverside’s student body is small and the campus is on the fringe of the Los Angeles metropolitan area. But it is still a University of California campus and its students have access to the top-notch academic resources and facilities that have long characterized the UC system. In addition, because of UC Riverside’s relatively small size, many undergraduate courses have small enrollments and are taught by professors rather than teaching assistants or itinerant part-timers.
An academically ambitious student could do a lot worse than spend four years at UC Riverside.
PAULA M. SCHIFFMAN
Northridge
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