Unjustified Ridicule

To the Editors of the Crimson:

I hate to complain in such an uncontested issue as the inconvenience of buying textbooks on the first day of the term, but your reporter misquoted me in the article "The Crunch Begins," [Sep. 28], if only by one word, and it makes all the difference in the world to what I told him and to the intention of his article.

I would have been a fool to say I didn't see a crush in the Coop that day; it happens every time at every school bookstore and cannot be avoided: How else can so many buy so much in such a short time in a space that size? Be reasonable!

What I did say was that I expected, or feared, chaos, which, from my point of view as a problem solver and question answerer, not a cashier, means lots of problems with hard answers or questions that should never have arisen; in other words, explaining, patching and apoligizing for mistakes in buying and organizing. My remark to your reporter indicated that that did not happen, and lines and crowded aisles do not contradict my statement. The managers and buyers should be praised for their work.

The opening days of other schools in the area were crazy for us because we could not anticipate the students' needs. All our efforts were spent making up for someone else's mistakes.

The very fact that any Coop employee had time to talk to your reporter at the time he came around indicates how well things were going. During the previous opening days I would have glanced at him blankly and told him to ask his questions after closing time.

The first week of the term can be hard for all conbut you do no one a favor by holding the Coop up to unjustified ridicule through easy, unfair and pointless criticism. Eric Lee