View source for File:1990 05 14 Weigley-letter-scan.pdf

TEMPLE UNIVERSITY                         College of Arts and Sciences                    Gladfelter Hall (025-24)

A Commonwealth University           Department of History                              Philadelphia, PA 19122

May 14, 1990

Mr. Gregory J. Kohs

651 Greene Drive

Winter Park, Florida 32792

Dear Mr. Kohs:

 

The rush of final exams and term papers got in the way of a prompt answer to your letter of April 27. I hope this somewhat belated response will reach you not too long after you return to Winter Park on May 15.

Regarding your questions: First, for information from the university about housing, you should consult the University Housing office, 321 Student Activities Center (Temple Zip O45-75), Temple University, Philadelphia 19122, telephone (215) 787-7180.  Many graduate and professional students, however, prefer to find apartments on their own, using newspaper ads to guide them. The city is large and therefore the possibilities are bewildering, but it is worth remembering that there is also a good public transportation system and that therefore living at some distance from the university does not necessarily present excessive problems.  If you get to the point of considering particular neighborhoods, I'd be glad to offer further advice.  I'm sorry that the Admissions Office did not respond to your earlier request for information.

A part-time job along with your fellowship technically requires the approval of the department and the Graduate School, but I do not think there will be any insurmountable obstacles.  A job at Temple’s computer facilities might indeed be a possibility for someone with your background and experience.  You might want to drop a letter of inquiry to Professor P. M. G. Harris of this department; he is the faculty member who knows best, at least in our department, what is going on in those facilities.  If you write, tell him who you are of course, and that I suggested you might contact him.

If you maintain the good academic record that we have every reason to expect, the odds are that your fellowship will be renewed.  Also, the Department of History would feel an obligation to see that financial aid continued for at least three years as long as your work progresses normally.

Our foreign language requirements are fairly flexible. I am not sure as yet whether you'll consider yourself a major in United States history; if you do, only one foreign language is required.  For a major in other geographical areas, a second language is required, according to the student's research interests.  Meeting the requirement involves translating a passage from the language in question into English, with the examination administered by the language department involved, but sometimes with your history adviser's choosing the passage to be translated.  You might well wish to review during the summer a language in which you already have some preparation.

 

 

 

 

Mr. Gregory J. Kohs                             May l4, 1990

Page 2

 

The department's graduate secretary will be sending you during the summer information on matriculating in the fall.  This information will include an announcement of an orientation gathering of new graduate students to meet other students, faculty, and advisers.

Thanks very much for your remarks about my telephoning while you were in your decision-making process.  Thanks, too, for sending a copy of your excellent Senior Honors Thesis, "American Journals and the Strategic Bombing of Germany."  You probably have no way of knowing that the moral and legal issues associated with World War II strategic bombing have become a special passion of mine.  Since they have, I read the thesis with unusual interest.  Actually, however small the amount of dissent from strategic bombing you found in wartime periodicals, it is somewhat more than I realized existed amongst wartime enthusiasms and hatreds.  But it remains a deep tragedy that so little thought was given to issues of conscience. (And that to a considerable extent the situation has hardly changed.  I have found that if I lecture about World war II to an audience composed in any large part of veterans of the war, all I need to do to stir up a hornet's nest is to raise questions about the ethics of strategic bombing.)

Some of the above answers to your questions are not as specific as I'd like, but I think they are the best I can do at present.  Needless to say, I'll be happy to continue to try to be helpful, so don't hesitate to contact me again.  I'll be away during the second half of July and for the first few days of August, but otherwise I expect to be reachable throughout the summer.

I look forward to meeting you and to working with you.

 

Sincerely,

 

Russell F. Weigley