Many Quit College to Join Rights Effort in ‘60s

I am writing as a former colleague of Quincy Troupe at UC San Diego (“Poet Resigns Post at UC San Diego Over Resume Lie,” Dec. 4). I am, like him, a poet and writer. I was the head for the writing section in the literature department where he taught for many years. Like him, I was tenured from the day of my arrival there, even though I did not have a bachelor of arts degree. I dropped out of Stanford in 1961, a year early, when students were becoming radicalized and disaffected from most confirmed institutions. I never went back to finish. It is important for people to remember that there was a time when progressive politics dominated our thinking as young people and we followed the call South and elsewhere, leaving behind some sloppy trails. It is frightening to read the judgments coming down in this cultural climate. They can’t be separated.

Fanny Howe

Professor Emeritus, UCSD

West Tisbury, Mass.