Dear Acting Chancellor Marsha Chandler:

Thank you for your utter lack of leadership during the firestorm emergency. Keeping us misinformed will surely score you big points with the UC Regents as they consider you for the permanent position of chancellor.

First of all, thank you for not e-mailing us about school closures. Using word-of-mouth instead of the e-mail announcement system was fun, underground, and was definitely thinking outside the box. I’m glad you resisted the temptation to spam our inboxes with school closure notices, and that you saved campuswide e-mail for important things like introducing yourself as you did last week.

Also, thank you for being so last-minute. Being the last school to decide to close, and then waiting until the late afternoon each day to make the next decision kept us on our toes. A lot of us had midterms scheduled for the week, and waiting until the last minute helped us study in advance for cancelled tests.

Most of all, thanks for your misinformation. Being lied to about the lack of smoke danger helped me stay calm. My favorite quote is from your vice chancellors who were good enough to at least post some notices on UCSD Web sites. Their sole purported reasoning for closing school read: “”We are taking this action as we feel it is important to reduce traffic on regional highways in support of emergency personnel.””

Your concern for the heroic emergency personnel is heartwarming, but, oh yeah, these campus notices just forgot to mention that the air outside was dangerous to breathe and that walking between classes posed health risks for students as well as a legal liability nightmare for the university.

Anything else you’re forgetting to tell us?

Once again, on behalf of the student body, thanks for nothing.

‹ Boaz Gurdin

Thurgood Marshall College junior