On Oct. 22, I had the privilege to attend the Tenth Annual Joseph (Jen-Hwa) Lee Memorial Lecture given at the Kellogg Center. The speaker was Qiu Xigui, a distinguished professor of Chinese language and literature at Beijing University. The lecture was interesting, and I appreciated being given the opportunity to hear it.

However, I feel that I must apologize to professor Qiu for the appalling display of bad manners given by a host of lecture attendees.

People around me talked throughout the entire lecture, did homework and answered cell phone calls. The height of rudeness occurred when nearly half of the audience left before the lecture was over.

I am sure this man, who came all the way from China to speak, had to have been utterly dismayed and embarrassed by these events.

For those who attended and disrespected the speaker with their lack of good manners, take some time now to learn what proper public behavior is.

If you learn how to behave while in college, it will benefit you infinitely in the working world, which is the wrong place to discover that you lack social skills.

Denice Leach
history senior