The tragic situation that Mount Ida is confronting reminds me only too painfully of a merger that I personally experienced: the discontinuance of Boston State College in 1982. At the time, I was president of the faculty union at Boston State College and I had the responsibility for defending the rights of more than 300 faculty, many of whom were being threatened with the termination of their careers. I remember the anxiety, the outrage, and the sadness of all of us as we saw a community being destroyed. By dint of hard fighting in the Legislature, we managed to redeploy faculty members to other institutions of higher learning. But we lost our college.

The Globe has given thorough coverage of the agony and loss that Mount Ida students are undergoing. Unfortunately, it has merely noted that 280 staff will be terminated, including faculty and workers upon whom any institution depends for its functioning. To his credit, the governor has expressed his concern for them (“Baker criticizes Mount Ida leaders,’’ Page A1, April 11). It would be wonderful if the Globe would also give them voice.

John Ellis van Courtland Moon

Brookline

The writer is a professor emeritus of history and a former president of the Massachusetts conference of the American Association of University Professors.