In response to Lauren Phillips' column "Freshmen retain high profile" (SN 9/3), I find I share some common traits with her.

This year, I return to MSU a little older and a little wiser as a junior. However, I strongly disagree with her on several fronts. In my naive opinion, I would like to believe that we attend a university free of cynics like Phillips. She talks as if she never went through her own Academic Orientation Program or freshmen move-in and did not conform to the "freshmen formalities." Phillips seems to assimilate a mosaic of freshmen into one uniform slate. In a university that centers on diversity and community, negative views like Phillips' should be thrown out like extra copies of The State News in a Wells Hall lecture room.

When Phillips stereotyped freshmen males as being "horn-dogs who know only two things: Booze and sex," she is making a gross generalization that could be true for many, and for certain, not limited to only males. And to infer that after one year of institutional schooling, students become "enlightened" and do not need to get done up for weekend nights is ignorant. The last issue I'll touch on is the issue of freshmen using campus maps. When I first arrived here, I boldly walked around with my handy campus map. If people were to pass judgment onto me for using a map, then personally I would rather not associate with people as petty as that.

My suggestion to Phillips and people of her nature is to accept and welcome the freshmen so they do not grow to be as contemptuous as many of the MSU upperclassmen.

Scott Bernstein
general business administration and pre-law junior