GOP Influence at Pepperdine

Your article on Pepperdine University is highly critical of its favoritism toward the Republican Party and implies that this tendency is motivated by its desire to attract financial donations. This is, of course, newsworthy, because the vast majority of metropolitan newspapers, display an overwhelming bias toward the Democratic Party, and particularly liberal Democrats.

You might carry a comparable article about some major university such as Stanford, my alma mater, which has attracted far more donations than Pepperdine, and which has an extremely liberal bias. Its faculty Senate raised so many objections to having the Reagan Library located on the Stanford campus that those in charge withdrew their offer to have it built there. Commencement speakers, who are chosen by the students, have been predominantly liberal Democrats. New York Gov. Mario Cuomo was a recent one. This year it was former House Speaker Tip O’Neill (D-Mass.). It is said that an invitation was extended to Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, but that he declined.

Anyway, you are right about Pepperdine and fund raising. After reading your article, I have been convinced that they deserve a donation from me. Would that there were more universities like it.

ALFRED B. POST

San Marino