Oxford got it right

In Nathan Freeman's May 28 column, "Hire professors on merit," the columnist implies that Oxford University should have hired Derek Walcott as its prestigious Professor of Poetry, even though he had two serious past allegations of sexual misconduct toward women. Although his argument that most poets throughout history (citing Pound) are typically mentally unsound is an interesting one, it is completely irresponsible to suggest that Oxford should have hired him anyway, based on the merit of his poetry. The Professor of Poetry delivers three lectures each year, and is a position reserved for the most respected poets of our time. Such a professor needs to be a role model for students, and a man who has stained his career by attempting to coax a female student into sexual relations (and then marking her down on her final grade for rejecting him) deserves no such title, not at Oxford or any university. Oxford got it right by refusing to elect Walcott, and appointing Ruth Padel as the first woman to the position instead. Even though Padel later stepped down, it delivers a sweet irony in favor of the sex that Walcott has chosen to objectify in the past, delivering the true "poetic justice" that Freeman writes about. Megan Weinand, Trinity '12