TO THE EDITOR:
William McKinney's Oct. 12 column, "All the Troubles With Technology" was disturbing for several reasons. The Department of Computer Science does not deserve and will not have "a stigma as a place of cheating." There are many students in the department who uphold the Honor Code and will continue to do so. The unpublicized actions of the honest majority of computer science majors should define the department. The Daily Tar Heel in general has failed to acknowledge this anonymous majority.
Additionally, Mr. McKinney's case for moving the computer science department is offensive and disrespectful to the institution that educates him. Most of the computer science majors chose Carolina because of its reputation and the prospect of a well-rounded education. We would ask that Mr. McKinney not make spiteful accusations and irresponsible recommendations about that which he readily admits he does not understand.
In addition, the DTH and much of the media in general consistently misuse the term "hacker." This mistake was made by the DTH in the same edition on Page 3 in regards to the defacing of the UNC home page. A hacker is an ethical, clever programmer, not to be confused with a malicious "cracker." See http://www.eps.mcgill.ca/jargon/html/The-Jargon-Lexicon-framed.html for expanded definitions.
Finally, to show there are no hard feelings, we hackers invite Mr. McKinney to our next round of D&D. :-)
Heather Morgan
Senior
Computer Science
Scott Tolsma
