To the editor:

I’m scratching my head over the latest Saturday Column (Jan. 23) from Dolph Simons Jr. Once again, he is raising the specter of Kansas University Chancellor Bernadette Gray-Little’s advanced age (70), strongly implying that academic talent will be reluctant to come to a university whose aged leader does not clearly say when she will be retiring.

As a retired KU faculty member, I can assure Mr. Simons that the question of when-will-the-current-chancellor-leave is pretty much a non-issue when considering whether to accept an academic position. A chancellor is not a football coach (Bill Snyder was the foil to Gray-Little in this column) who has immediate and daily effects on his players. An administrator who had immediate and daily effects on faculty, students and staff would be a disaster of micromanagement. Chancellor Gray-Little is not a disaster; from what I could see she was one of the better chancellors in my 36 years at KU.

Dolph Simons Jr. will turn 86 on March 11. Could it be that people are reluctant to subscribe to the Journal-World as long as its aged leader refuses to say how long he plans to stay at his post and how long he plans to continue writing the Saturday Column?