If anyone should feel nostalgic about the University of Washington’s reactor building, I should be near the top of the list [“UW’s unsightly reactor building center of unneeded argument,” Opinion, May 23].
I began my career at the UW with an office in the building and later became the director of the reactor. And I do feel nostalgic about it. However, that doesn’t mean the building should be preserved. It was designed for a specific purpose and it’s not useful now as an abandoned relic.
Meanwhile, the Computer Science & Engineering (CS&E) program is bursting at the seams and needs additional space. The city and the state need additional competent graduates from this program. This is an easy call — replace the structure with a new facility for CS&E.
Gene L. Woodruff, Corvallis, Ore.
Former professor and chair, UW Department of Nuclear Engineering