After reading Richard Arum’s and Josipa Roksa’s June 3 column “College is too easy for its own good,” I had only one question, “Where’s the surprise?”

I’ve had only one personal surprise in my college education. I graduated (with the help of the U.S. Army’s tuition assistance) from Lesley College (now Lesley University) with a bachelor’s in organizational behavior in their then-Programs in Management for Business and Industry. Lesley was the first, or among the first, to develop such a program.

Nearly 10 years ago, I needed to get transcripts from Lesley, but a Lesley “University” representative told me over the phone that the school had no archives, and couldn’t help me. So how do I prove my education to future employers or education programs?

Hopefully, [Anne Arundel (Md.) Community College graduate] Staff Sgt. Dysha Huggins-Hodge (“Downrange valedictorian,” article, June 8) won’t have the same problem as I did.

1st Sgt. Douglas C. Sleeth (retired)

Rostov-on-Don, Russia

Good info lost in provocation

Regarding the June 14 article “Why aren’t there more profiles of black heroes?”: Articles like this fuel racism and have no place in the military.

From Day One in the Army soldiers are told, “You are green.” There are racially biased people in the Army, as well as people who grew up in racially biased cultures. “News” that ignites racial prejudice has no place in the media.

The article states “The Defense Department does not track racial data” and continues to present facts regarding racial demographics in DOD. Yet the article closes with five paragraphs devoted to a man’s (Tyrone Williams, chief operating officer at the outreach group Black Veterans for Social Justice) opinions, even though he “can’t point to any hard data.”

Although the article had some good information, it opened and closed in bad taste. The Army is green.

Sgt. Winston deBlanc

Contingency Operating Site Marez, Iraq

Migrated