Dear Editor,

I am writing in concern over the Pohorence Potables article about “How to get a girl in ten days,” which was published on Nov. 1, 2006.  I have some real concerns over the material published in regards to being a Resident Assistant for the Office of Residential Life. 

The article reads, “Be an RA: With this route you can meet tons of girls, particularly drunk ones on the weekend.  From there you could blackmail them for a date in exchange of their probation for drunkenness.”

This is absurd and I feel it is unacceptable that a college paper can allow this to be written for all of our Fisher community members to view.  It certainly sends a terrible message and conveys my fellow staff members in a disrespectful and disgusting way.  I feel that the Courier needs to take these things into consideration when they are reviewing these kinds of articles for print no matter what kind of article it is.

Something I think the Courier needs to keep in mind as well is that Fisher students are not your only audience.  Although Fisher students may get a laugh from these comments, consider this: the Student Ambassadors at St. John Fisher plug the Courier while on tour and encourage parents and prospective students to take a copy of the Courier to read and see what opportunities there are for involvement within the media organizations on campus.

I have to believe that a parent would not feel comfortable sending their son or daughter to St. John Fisher when they read comments about our Resident Assistants, such as the ones in the Pohorence Potables article.

The Resident Assistants of St. John Fisher are being conveyed in a very negative light and I hope that the Courier and its writers will take this into consideration when they are coming up with creative ways to entertain the Fisher community through their gift of words.  The Cardinal  Courier is a great paper, and St. John Fisher is lucky to have a dedicated Cardinal Courier staff like we have.  However, I think it is important that the Courier considers how they are depicting different campus leaders and the audience who views the paper before articles and comments such as these are printed.

Thank you for your time and consideration.
Steven Ovens
Resident Assistant – Keough Hall


Dear Editor,

To support Steve’s (Ovens) statements, as a male Resident Assistant who is always deeply concerned with the well-being and safety of his residents in Murphy Hall, I think the Pohorence Potables article was ridiculous. I do not know what the point of the statements was. Such statements are not representative of what the Resident Assistant does, and Resident Assistants are there to support, not take advantage of the residents within their building.

To say such things against such a small population (less than 50 of us), who works their tails off to make this college a better place for all, is unacceptable. Then to specifically target the male population of the Office of Residential Life staff was even more unacceptable.

I can not believe that this came out of the Courier, a prestigious, award-winning college newspaper, one that I thought I could read to get college news, not offensive statements toward my position and passion for my job.

I hope that in the future such articles do not get put into the hands of college students.

Whether it was a joke or not is irrelevant, there should be consideration for the people in the Resident Assistant position and the audience, including the whole school and potential future students. Thank you for your time in reading this.

Miguel A. Melendez Jr.

Resident Assistant – Murphy Hall

Dear Editor,

It has come to my attention that the “After Dark: On campus night” article by John Peters published on Nov. 1, 2006, referred to a toga party at the “Rugby House.”

The house is not affiliated with the St. John Fisher Rugby Team and just because people on the team live there does not mean it is endorsed by the team.  By printing something like that in your paper, you give negative implications of the Rugby Team to the school.

If you would like to print negative articles on the Rugby Team that happen off-campus jurisdiction, maybe the Courier could also cover actual events put on by the Fisher Rugby.  The first event that should have been covered was an actual game of the Rugby Team to at least show people that there is rugby on campus.

Or maybe you would like to show the volunteer work we do.  Just a few weeks ago, we made and helped prepare dinner for the Special Olympics, which is a positive thing and no one from the Cardinal Courier covered that even though it was talked about at a Council of Presidents meeting.

John Cochol

Dear Editor,

The Women and Gender Studies (WGST) Club brings The Clothesline Project to the Fisher campus each year with the hopes of bringing awareness to the delicate subject of sexual violence. The project exists not only for awareness, but also to give the victims of sexual, domestic, verbal and physical abuse a voice. Women may never tell their stories out loud but can take solace in knowing they have a safe place to be heard. This project not only empowers survivors but lets them know they are not alone.

We want to thank those of you who have come forward with your stories.  It takes a lot of courage, and like one of the shirts says: we will forever admire your strength. We also want to thank those of you who have shown your support for the project and for the cause; it means a lot to us. There are many controversial shirts hanging upon the fence this year, and we fully expected to hear a lot of uproar about them. It is great that the project is engaging people in dialogue, whether it is positive or negative.

At the same time, we were appalled at the acts of some students. We did not want to bring attention to it because that is obviously the goal of the act; however, the three shirts that were hung on the clothesline in the middle of the night should not go unmentioned. I am not going to mention this person’s name or what the shirts depicted, but I will say this: those shirts were hate speech at its finest.

Over the past couple days, I have wrestled with this idea of freedom of speech and expression.  Being a Communication major, I am all for complete freedom of speech; however, I still believe there is a time and a place for everything and a certain compassion that goes along with it.

Hate speech has no home on this campus. Hate is not a Fisher value.

You may not agree with the project, you may have very strong feelings against the project, but there are better ways to show your disagreement.

Those shirts condoned rape. In fact, they encouraged it. While indeed you have the freedom of speech, it is not absolute, especially on a college campus. These women have the freedom from fear, and that is why we took the shirts down. We will not allow you to take away the power and the voice of these women.

Karen Perry