I'm writing in response to Zieneb Hamdan's Viewpoint on March 3 describing her perspective of Ambassador Dennis Ross' lecture Feb. 22 on the prospects for Middle East peace.

First, as a graduate student actually taking the class he teaches this semester, I can attest to the fact that the material presented is not the designed-biased version of events that Hamdan thinks she saw at his presentation in the Union. Rather, the class is presented with alternate viewpoints of the Arab/Palestinian narratives and the Palestinian experience.

The point here is expectations — Hamdan, expecting to hear 'bias' from an American diplomat, saw it.

Contrary to this, the focus should be on achievable realities in the Middle East, based on current circumstances, which is what the lecture and the class, are supposed to elucidate.

I, for one, am glad that Marquette is able to attract top-level academics who have actually been at the vanguard of policy and hope this will only be a harbinger of more to come.

Manohar Thyagaraj is a graduate student in the department of political science.

This article appeared in The Marquette Tribune on Mar. 15 2005.