I want to thank the staff of the Daily who brought readers the cover story, “Not just passing through,” (March 30) concerning the national problem of human rights violations against university students.

Although the articles focused on the municipalities surrounding universities and the ease with which they impose ordinances on students in an attempt to control behavior, little attention was focused on where these spurious concepts of youth obedience come from.

Sadly, they come from colleges of education, such as Iowa State’s department of educational leadership and policy studies. This is where university administrators learn to act as benevolent dictators just like the superintendents and principals at our nation’s secondary schools. All of these folks rub elbows with city and county officials, and that is how the false science of youth obedience is perpetuated.

To better understand the complex dynamics at work that influence the lives of youth, interested students should read the first 44 pages of a 100-page book designed for busy young adults titled “Reclaiming Youth at Risk: Our Hope for the Future.” This book, with a forward by Nobel Prize winner Desmond Tutu, was written by a team of three professors internationally recognized for youth advocacy.

To better understand a more enlightened and liberating model of corporate governance that could easily be modified for a large university, students should examine the methods now used at Johnson & Johnson, the Glen Mills Schools and Iowa’s Woodward Academy.

The academy is available for tours and is just 30 minutes from Ames.

Jon Shelness

Alumnus

Slater