I was surprised to see Professor Jane Cox’s letter in the Nov. 11 issue of the Daily. I could not believe that I was so difficult to find. For my own personal reasons, I prefer to go by my middle name instead of my first, and since most people at the university know me as Elisa Strachan, I have not hesitated to sign my letters as such. Since there are only two students here with the last name Strachan, and the other is a man, I would not think that this would be so confusing.

I am, in fact, a second-year student at Iowa State. Although I may be classified as undecided, I have been following the curriculum of meteorology since I started college, and I have therefore considered myself to be a meteorology major. Again, I regret any confusion this may have caused anyone trying to contact me.

I was quite taken aback at Professor Cox’s question of my existence and efforts to track me down. While I applaud Professor Cox’s suggestion of meeting and sharing documentation, at this point in time I feel it would be more appropriate to put our energies into creating a space where shared documentation would be open and easily accessible to those within the ISU community who wish to become better educated on Carrie Chapman Catt, the woman suffrage movement and the Catt Hall controversy.

Professor Cox, President Jischke, the Catt Center for Women and Politics, The September 29th Movement and any other person or group who feels they have documentation that could shed light on this complex issue would be able to contribute their respective documentation for interested persons to review at their convenience.

The reserve department at Parks Library seems like the most logical choice because of the central location, the hours the materials would be available for reading and because the library serves the needs of researchers. Unfortunately, the policy of the reserve department at the library is that reserve materials must be listed under a specific course.

I can understand the need for such a policy, but since this dispute has been going on for over two years, I do not believe that it would be an unreasonable request to make exception for this issue.

The accessibility of these materials in a central location would improve the communication of the ideas and documentation behind the arguments both for and against the naming of Catt Hall.

Perhaps with the support of Professor Cox and President Jischke, the library will make an exception to its current policy so that this space can be created.

I personally know of members of The September 29th Movement who would not only contribute documentation, but would be happy to assist in the ongoing maintenance and organization of the reserve materials. And I am sure that Professor Cox and President Jischke both have compelling arguments and documentation that they would be eager to share as well.

I call upon Professor Jane Cox, President Jischke and the Catt Center for Women and Politics to publicly state their support of the creation of such a space and then actively support it by immediately contributing documentation which they feel is relevant to academic discussions about Carrie Chapman Catt and the Catt Hall controversy.

This will give the entire ISU community the chance to become better educated on this issue.

Elisa Strachan

Sophomore

Meteorology