In light of your open letter to Professor Peter Benson (“A response to Peter Benson,” Oct. 2), we feel that it is necessary to state the position of Controversy n’ Coffee, as a student group dedicated to fostering dialogue in the Wash. U. community.

Dear Mr. Christofanelli,

I found your response to Peter Benson’s support for the University’s parenting role toward students vitriolic, hyperbolic and, ironically, utterly childish (“A response to Peter Benson,” Oct. 2). I was not able to attend the forum on the new tobacco policy, so I will take your word for it that Professor Benson was patronizing or condescending, but that does not mean that his position is entirely without merit, nor excuse the threatening tenor of your letter.

You went on to refer to smokers as “diseased,” but the real disease here is not my pastime, but rather your ideology, which lowers every student in this University to the state of a peon incapable of making his own decisions correctly.

Debate over Washington University’s tobacco ban heated up last week during the first Controversy n’ Coffee of the school year, titled “Jumping on the ‘Ban’ Wagon: A Panel Discussion on Smoking Bans.”