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J 7 d i t o r i a l sThe Most Serious Wrong Of AllWhen there are two sides to a question, it%u2019s hard to have things both ways.But, that's what our Mayor, Ed Koch is trying to do in the matter of VictorBotnick, our Health and Hospitals Corporation president. The end result is adisappointment and won't serve either man very well when the issue playsitself out to the end.Mr. Botnick %u2014 and the Mayor on his behalf %u2014 has unleashed a string ofeuphemisms in an effort to explain what was an unfortunate lapse of truth(another euphemism) on his part in describing facts in his background. For aman so young, it's hard to believe the truth is so hard to recall %u2014 particularlyfor someone so otherwise skilled in his work.In principle, we wouldn%u2019t quarrel with the Mayor%u2019s decision to %u201cpunish\Botnick and keep him ir. place %u2014 even though we might argue about hisfuture effectiveness as a leader after this incident of untruth when coupledwith the %u201caltercation%u201d that took place in his office %u2014 were it not for his initialdenial in the face of challenge by a Daily News reporter. That unseemly reaction suggests a deliberate determination to deceive. No matter what thereason, it seems to go to the heart of the issue and is, we think, the mostserious wrong of all.Weighing the seriousness of this particular transgression in the balance ofwrongs is a personal matter for each of us. But, the Mayor sets a high standard on the truth and honesty and other high officials in his administrationhave been sent on to new work with great dispatch for what we would callsimilar misdeeds. Not in this instance, however. Not yet.O M M V N IT Y p O R U M VIEW S O F READERSSt. Francis Scholar Talks About Her Education and What It Means for the FutureAll o f us will haveopportunities to trysomething new anddifferent, to take risksthroughout our lives. I f itis something worthwhiledoing, you cannot affordto let the fears andwarnings o f others stopyou. Even more difficultis facing your own fearsand going ahead anyway.Graduating from college is quite an accomplishment for anyone, but for this FortGreene woman it was an especially impressive achievement. Elizabeth Rosen wasvaledictorian of her graduating class thisspring at St. Francis College, winner ofthree major school awards, and a wife andmother of two. Following is the valedictoryaddress she gave at commencement.BY ELIZABETH ROSENI am honored and pleased by this opportunity to represent the 1986 graduating classof St. Francis College. While I do not fit thestereotype of a college graduate, one of thestrengths of St. Francis is that our school hasa very diverse student body, ranging in agefrom years younger than I am to years older.Some of us can even walk to school and someof us have come half way around the world,leaving behind family, friends and a familiarculture. Many of us have finished our collegestudies in the usual four years, a few braveand hardy individuals have finished in evenless, and for some of us this is the end of avery long road.It is a cliche, because it is true, thatgraduation, like all points of ending andbeginning, brings mixed feelings. There ispride in accomplishment and relief that thisparticular task is completed. There is excitement over moving on to new opportunitiesand sadness at leaving.I remember having the same ambivalentemotions when I first came to St. Francis.My husband had finally completed his doctorate, my oldest daughter had justgraduated college and my youngest was entering first grade. Now it was my turn to complete the education I had interrupted years before. I was very excited %u2014 and scared to death. I worried about my ability to study and compete with students who had not taken a twenty years vacation from school. I envisioned myself sitting in classi toms for four years and not finding anyone to talk to. I thought I might be the only %u201cnon-traditional%u201d student attending day classes. And I worried about being able to %u201cdo it all%u201d %u2014 work, study, parent, etc.You can always find someone to reinforce your fears. There were those who said sympathetically, %u201cThat%u2019s too much to take on.%u201d There were those who warned me about age discrimination. I might put all this effort into getting a college diploma and then not be able to get a job. There was the Dean for Continuing Education, since retired, who advised me to take an easier major than accounting because, after all, I certainly wouldn%u2019t take a CPA exam!All of us will have opportunities to try something new and different, to take risks,throughout our lives. If it is something worthwhile doing, you cannot afford to let the fears and warnings of others stop you. Even more difficult is facing your own fears and going ahead anyway. But the rewards of courage, and a certain amount of sheer stubbomess, can be exhilarating. While only I could make the decision to go back to school, once I had committed myself, I had more help than I had ever imagined.When you are 18 or 19 and go to college, it is easy to take your family%u2019s support for granted. As a mother, I too, think it is a parent%u2019s responsibility to see that their child gets an education. But it is equally obvious to me that children are not responsible for educating parents, at least not in the formal sense. I have had the joy of being proud of my children%u2019s achievements in school and the joy of having them be proud of mine. Needless to say, I could not have done this without the wholehearted support of my husband. Half of this piece of paper awarded to me today is his %u2014 despite his occasional complaints that I studied too much and %u201cdid I really need to get another A?%u201dThe support of friends and family may not be that unusual but my previous experiences with educational institutions had led me to expect, at best, a benign disinterest from staff and faculty. I must admit that St. Francis suffers from the same computer errors and frustrating administrative procedures that plague most of modern life, but to my surprise there has always been a human being who could be appealed to and who could intervene. The goal of staff and faculty, perhaps not always achieved, but aimed for nevertheless, is to teach and help students, not process them. I hope St. Francis will never lose this quality of human concern.As an accounting major, I am admittedly biased, but the best example of St. Francis%u2019 special qualities for me are evident in the Accounting Department. In particular the senior faculty, Dr. Geoffrey Horlic, Chairman, and Professor William Yellin, have for my four years here, been unstinting with their advice and help, and with their demands for the best I had to give.And now it is time to leave St. Francis, but I can assure you that this is not the end of our education. Many of us, myself included, start on-the-job training now. Some of us are going on to graduate school for more normal education, now or later. Some, amazingly enough, may even take courses for enjoyment. All of us though, will continue our education formally or informally. Throughout our lives the opportunity to learn will be there. We choose whether or not to take advantage of itS IGN OF TH E T im e sEditor%u2019s Note:An article in the May 29, Phoenix, %u201cEnvironmental Concerns Next for Action inAtlantic Terminal Review,%u201d contained twoerrors concerning the Atlantic Terminal environmental impact statement. Concerningthe Atlantic Ave.-Pacific St. subway station,the EIS recommends eliminating only thefree transfer from the D and M lines to \and HR lines. The free IIIT-BMT transfer%u2014 M(,1 4 ------------: - t . i t vvkjuiu i ciiiaiiG UUl U1C 4JU111 Idlingpassageway between the two stations wouldbe relocated. The article also misstated thetotal number of permanent jobs the project isexpected to generate. The correct figure is1:1,700.; ong island University students outside the Brooklyn Academy of Music after graduation ceremonies earlier this month. (Pnoemx/Kirk Photo)Page 46. THE PH O EN IX, June 12, 1986