To the Editors Brandon Sun As a graduate of Brandon University, I feel a strong connection to the school.  While the current situation is regrettable, I take exception to the comments your paper put forth in castigating the parties involved and the quality of the institution.   Your editorial “Our View” of November 10 characterizes individuals as “out of touch, selfish, and greedy” but one could easily juxtapose these adjectives with “passionate, caring, and principled.”  The problem is the fact that your editorial fails to provide any evidence that these people are motivated in the manner you contend.  Instead you simply lower the argument, providing the public only with baseless innuendo by surmising: “could the BUFA executive be placing its own interests before that of the student body and the community at large?”  The editor’s willingness to denigrate individuals is witnessed further by remarks made about the current student union body.  These students are characterized as “known NDP supporters,” “immature rabble-rousers” and “radical.”  I do not know if the editorial staff at the Brandon Sun realizes this, but the chances of meeting a known NDP supporter in this city are quite high.  Voter information from the last provincial election indicates that more Brandonites cast a ballot in support of the NDP than for all three alternative parties combined.  Secondly, these “rabble-rousers” were democratically elected by a student body and they have gone to great length to meet with both faculty and administration before providing a rationale for their position regarding the strike.  I would venture to guess these young people took considerably more time to reflect on the situation than the author of your opinion piece did.  Finally, I’m old enough to remember another Brandon University graduate who was called a radical – and that was Tommy Douglas.  If I was a current member of the students’ union being criticized in such a fashion, I would rest comfortably in the company I keep with such an alumnus.   The writer of your piece also concludes that the current strike has jeopardized the future of the university because s/he “hears”  “BU isn’t exactly a school of choice” for current high school seniors.  What the editor fails to mention is the fact that many alternative institutions of higher education in this country will also be in a legal position for strike or lockout during these students’ next four years of study.  Furthermore, faced with a contract proposal similar to that offered to the professors at Brandon University, perhaps these academics will be willing to take the same stand.   People are entitled to their own opinions but not their own facts.  And it is much easier to hold an unfounded opinion than one substantiated by fact.  I hope individuals keep this in mind when they read your editorials and I would trust that the Brandon Sun has the integrity associated with responsible journalism to avoid flippant thoughtless remarks in future coverage of the issue.   Sincerely,   Dean Beaubier