Your editorial “Put Students Before City” misses the point of RPI’s plans to develop the former Proctor’s Theater into a high-end hotel. President Jackson’s talk of economic development notwithstanding, the move’s primary purpose is presumably to fill an unmet need for a respectable place to host visitors to the Institute. Many top-flight schools own hotels for this reason. Official guests and well-heeled parents visiting Harvard University, for example, may stay at the Inn at Harvard, and other schools have similar arrangements. The Rensselaer Best Western, though a fine budget hotel, provides an embarrassing comparison.

We may indeed debate this and other uses of Institute funds, but let’s not cast the issue as an opposition of city and school priorities.

Jonah Sacks