To the editor:

Danette Michaels should be congratulated for having the courage to speak out about Kansas University’s appalling behavior toward women.

Ms. Michaels came under attack because the majority of Self Fellows are women. But this is not surprising since the majority of those winning graduate school awards and fellowships at KU were also women (67 percent of graduate awards compared to 59 percent of Self Fellowships). This is in line with recent trends; the majority of college students are now women (almost 55 percent in Kansas, and up to 60 percent in other states). With numbers like these we should consider it natural that women are now obtaining an increasing proportion of fellowships in graduate school.

KU needs all the qualified graduate students it can get, female as well as male. According to a report released by the provost’s task force on graduate education, the university’s ranking in the number of doctorates produced has dropped nine places in the past three years. KU has been having trouble recruiting and retaining graduate students and should not be sending the message that women are not welcome.

Discriminating against women is not good for KU and it is not good for the state of Kansas. According to the Institute for Women’s Policy Research, Kansas gets a C-plus in women employment and earnings. Women in Kansas are much less likely than women in the rest of the nation to work in managerial or professional capacities. Discouraging women from graduate school is not the way to remedy this.

Cynthia Annett,

Oskaloosa