Letter To The Editor

A last thought on the CLS/corporate question

To the editor:

I find it rather clever of Collins and Woodhouse to use arguments based upon a non sequitur approach while accusing me of the same ["Profs reply: U of S corporatization a reality", Feb. 7, 2003 On Campus News].

The private sector will not have access to 25% of the research conducted at the CLS - in fact it will be a higher percentage since most of the research conducted at the CLS will be published and accessible to all, including the private sector.

How does it support their argument that the private sector has made only a modest contribution to the funding of the synchrotron? Would a greater contribution mean there is less of a corporate agenda?

Corporations will pay to access beamlines, academics won't. In the immortal words of Julius Caesar: Feres libenter homines id quod volunt credunt. I have no more to say on this topic than: res ipsa loquitur.

EDITOR'S NOTES - Prof. Juurlink and Profs. Collins and Woodhouse have had a good exchange on this topic in the last number of editions of On Campus News, and we believe it is time to wind this debate down. Since we ran stories on Profs. Collins' and Woodhouse's initial critique, along with their and Juurlink's letters, it would seem fair to conclude with this letter.