erhaps the Law-Tuinman spat at Memorial University of Newfoundland (Bulletin, April) has obscured what I believe is one of the most unfortunate outcomes of the vice-president academic's tenure at this university -- the emasculation of the faculty of science.

By budgeting equal dollars per student-course registration across faculties the vice-president academic imposed discriminatory economies on those disciplines which are science-based, specifically laboratory-based.

Just what he expected to achieve by this approach is hard to fathom, but the most likely outcome will be the inability to rehire many Newfoundlanders who have been on contract or whose unions are unable to protect them from layoff for departmental budgetary reasons.

Memorial University will never again be the happy institution that it once was.

Frank R. Smith
Chemistry, Memorial University of Newfoundland