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As a recent graduate of the University of Minnesota, Morris and former student representative to the Board of Regents, I found the recent commentary defending Regent Steve Sviggum against the prevailing moods of "fashionable progressive elites" to be, frankly, ghastly ("Citizen Sviggum, a rebel for our times," Opinion Exchange, Oct. 30). Much ink has been spilled debating Sviggum's statement, apology, comments to other news outlets, resignation, etc., and I won't rehash the details of it save to say that I firmly believe that the students of Morris, particularly students of color, have handled the situation with a great deal of grace — certainly more than Sviggum has earned.

However, D.J. Tice's knee-jerk defense of Sviggum as an underdog and martyr of our woke era completely overlooks the simple fact that the supposed victim is exactly the opposite: a career politician and, moreover, one who has, in the past year alone, failed to adequately fulfill his duties to the state in his position on the Board of Regents. Sviggum defended U President Joan Gabel's controversial pay raise last December, dismissed frustrations over significant tuition hikes and stagnant wages as the sign of a good compromise in May, and most recently, has failed to provide meaningful accountability to an administration whose hostility to the needs of its rank-and-file workers has brought the U to the knife edge of a strike. Cry "woke" all you like — the fact of the matter is that Sviggum is not a man who has the U's best interests in mind.

Cal Mergendahl, Minneapolis

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As a teacher I occasionally had a student preface a question with, "This may be a dumb question, but ... ." My response was always, "The only dumb question is the one you don't ask." In Sunday's Star Tribune, state Sen. John Marty repeatedly refers to Sviggum's question as "comments" or a "statement"; it was neither — it was a question ("A teachable moment on racism," Opinion Exchange). Questions, even misguided or off-target, are an effective way to initiate discussion, which can lead to learning and in turn lead to enlightened understanding. In fact, Marty provides several cogent responses to start a serious discussion of Sviggum's question.

Robert Bache, Hopkins

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Parents send their children to immersion schools so that they can experience and become comfortable with cultures such as French, German, Spanish and Chinese. Today's university students will work in a global marketplace, with clients, customers, vendors and fellow employees from many cultures. So increased diversity in admissions benefits all students and faculty, not just those whose cultures have been underrepresented.

Living in a diverse world does not diminish the value of our own culture; it presents us with opportunities to widen our horizons and find more joy.

Timothy Bardell, St. Louis Park

I think Tice's defense of Sviggum overlooked at least two relevant factors. First, Sviggum's question wasn't neutrally posed. If he had said something like, "I'm concerned about the declining enrollments at U Morris. Could it be related to diversity?" that would have been a closer to a neutral question. However, he framed his question by discussing parents' letters to him about their children's discomfort with diversity. His wording also used "too diverse." So, I think his wording provided some justification in questioning his views.

More important, I think there are other factors that might affect the Morris campus more than the other University of Minnesota campuses. Morris is a public liberal arts college, so we might compare it to the private Minnesota liberal arts colleges. And not all is well there. The top three, Carleton, Macalester and St. Olaf, with their well-deserved national reputations, are doing well. But Minnesota can boast of a good number of other fine liberal arts colleges that have had several years of declining enrollments. For that matter, the Minnesota State system has also had enrollment problems. There is some evidence that the slice of prospective college students seeking liberal arts colleges is shrinking. I believe that the entire pool of prospective Minnesota college students is starting to shrink and will increase noticeably more around 2026, 18 years after the Great Recession of 2008.

The regents can't increase the entire pool of students or the proportion who seek a liberal arts education. They could, however, consider lowering the recruitment efforts of the Twin Cities campus of the U. It has, in my view, been increasing its undergraduate enrollment assertively. It is unclear to me how that has affected enrollment at Morris and the Minnesota State system or whether such intense recruitment is the best use of resources for our flagship research university.

From my limited vantage point, I can imagine other, deeper reasons for the enrollment decline at Morris beyond the discomfort of some potential students faced with some diversity.

Thomas Q. Sibley, St. Joseph, Minn.

I believe I'm not alone in saying that it's a relief that white people in positions of power can no longer feel comfortable in musing aloud, with impunity, that they feel there are too many people of color in a given place. In my book, this is solid progress toward a less racist community.

Peggy Joyce Rolloff, St. Paul

In regard to the story "Timber turbulence" (Oct. 23): The Department of Natural Resources has been mismanaging forest lands for decades. One example is the age of aspen for harvest being set at 40 years. The fact of the matter is harvesting at 45 years old on well-drained sands and gravel may be appropriate. But on moderately drained silt and clay soils, harvesting at 60-years-plus is completely appropriate.

Foresters walk away from doing mixed stand management and instead convert to monoculture conifer stands.

In other words, Minnesotas state lands are being farmed. The results are an incredible loss of diversity — not only for our natural world, but for small sawmill operators, specialty product harvesters and much more. While the DNR touts diversity and inclusion, they have omitted diversity on a much larger scale.

So just as our agriculture areas have shown an incredible lack of diversity, so do our forests. Foresters need to think outside the box. Fight management while working, not after you're retired. Do the right thing, not the easy thing. And if you're a private forest landowner, think of more than instant gratification when managing your lands. The DNR seems incapable of that, sadly.

Dan Wilm, Pequot Lakes, Minn.