Richard Sneed

Concerning the Dec. 7 issue of the Saddleback College Lariat, which contains religious and ethnic slurs in an opinion article dealing with nuclear policy, The Times has not adequately reported my position (Dec. 13). Newspapers, including student newspapers, are written by human beings, and they sometimes err. My remarks to your reporter concerned the necessity of maintaining educational standards in the field of student journalism. In my judgment, these standards were violated in the Lariat of Dec. 7. People have a right to be themselves and to maintain religious beliefs and traditions without fear of public humiliation in a newspaper.

Saddleback College professor Peter Espinosa has been chosen to receive the Excellence Award medallion by the Institute for Staff and Organizational Development. Espinosa, a counselor in the college's Division of Counseling Services and Special Programs, will receive the medallion at a special awards ceremony during the institute's International Conference on Teaching Excellence on May 27. Saddleback College President Constance M.

Saddleback Community College District trustees have added two candidates to their search for a new chancellor after two previous prospects removed themselves from consideration. Donald L. Singer, president of San Bernardino Valley College, and Larry L. Stanley, president of College of the Mainland in Texas City, Tex., were interviewed last week.

Saddleback Community College officials are celebrating the imminent opening of a $2.4-million state-of-the-art golf driving range and physical education facilities at Saddleback College. "After years of planning, it is gratifying to see the completion of facilities, constructed without tax dollars, that will benefit our students, the community and the district," Chancellor Richard Sneed said.

In a test of academic standards, a veteran Irvine Valley College writing professor urged a Superior Court commissioner Wednesday to reinstate a failing course grade he gave a student in 1991. Hugh W. Glenn, who has taught writing at Irvine Valley College for 13 years, sued Saddleback Community College District officials last year over their decision to change, without his permission, the student's course grade from a failing "D" to a passing "C."

Even as President Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev traded harsh rhetoric less than a month before their Moscow summit, 20 high Soviet officials held an unusual dialogue with ordinary Americans this week and seemed to display the policy of glasnost, or openness, for which Gorbachev has become renowned.

A move by the Saddleback Community College District Board of Trustees to continue the medical benefits of three of its outgoing board members has enraged some faculty and employees. The board voted 5 to 2 on Monday to continue the full health, dental and visual benefits worth about $6,800 per year for longtime trustees John C. Connolly, Robert L. Moore and Shirley Gellatly. All three were defeated in their reelection bids earlier this month. Trustees Harriett S.

Margaret Sagarese's reflections on Chris Rock at MTV include the invitation to call her "crazy" or "old-fashioned" ("Put Between Rock and a Hard Place," Counterpunch, Sept. 20). She is neither. She is just out of touch with theater. Way out. Has she forgotten Don Rickles? Joan Rivers? Does she remember Lenny Bruce? Does she have any notion of the traditions of social criticism in theater, sometimes the only places where criticism is tolerated? She can look all the way back to England and France and Germany, not to mention Greece and Rome.

Saddleback Community College District officials will soon redraw boundaries for the district's seven trustee areas to account for southward population shifts. Chancellor Richard Sneed said the boundaries should be redrawn by February, alleviating imbalances in which some trustees represent 24% or more of the district's 583,400 residents, while others represent less than 7%. A higher percentage of residents now live in the southern third of the district compared to 10 years ago, Sneed said.

Stephen Farber's commentary on "Swan Lake" is another example of how political correctness threatens to destroy art ("Bourne's 'Swan Lake': An Ill-Fated Flight," June 1). He objects that the ballet depicts the tragedy of homosexuality, not its more positive side. But doesn't most art depict the tragic aspect of romance, regardless of its participants? Should we revise "Romeo and Juliet" because it no longer offers a realistic example of adolescent love and its options? And does Farber really believe that coming out in '90s isn't fraught with peril?