Serra and Caltech

THE fact that Caltech President David Baltimore rejected the controversial, and confrontational, Richard Serra sculpture makes me simultaneously laugh and cry (“Caltech rejects Serra’s massive wall sculpture,” by Bettijane Levine, Nov. 16).

Serra’s sculpture would have provided the spine that Baltimore lacks.

I respect (and expect) student involvement and influence in campus politics, especially when it’s radical, but students come and go, and so do faculty, staff and presidents.

The Serra sculpture would outlive us all, and speak volumes about our courage to face our fear of art.

Douglas Nielsen

Hollywood