Dear students, faculty, staff and alumni,

On Wednesday afternoon, shortly after the release of this week’s issue, a group of students gathered outside of The Mirror office in order to protest the content of the “He Said,” column written by Chris Surette alongside Allyson Wuensch’s “She Said,” column.

The “He Said/She Said” columns are a tradition of The Mirror that date back many years and are a section of The Mirror that is most read and most controversial. The articles are not meant to be serious journalism and are not a representation of the entire Mirror staff. Instead, they are a representation of the views of Chris Surette, based on satirical and stereotypical thoughts of men.

I would like to state that as a classmate and friend of Chris, that he is not the same person as he is in his column in his day-to-day life. He is playing the role of a character, a satirical, stereotypical college man and in that role, is bringing to light the very issues that were being voiced at the protest. While at times the column may be over the top, personal attacks on Chris and his family are not the way to express your feelings about his column.

As a column, “He Said,” serves the purpose of serving up the sort of debate that was spurned by his latest column.  It is meant to bring about thoughts about the male and female mind. While “He Said” clearly does not represent all men, it is not meant to.  It is a satirical column in nature with the goal of being outrageous and over the top.

With that goal, it is bound to offend some members of our campus community. We respect the views of all members of the campus, but at the same time we ask for respect for our right of freedom of speech that allows us to publish these columns each week.

The Mirror has a goal of providing a voice for the students, but as an independent publication that simply sells the papers to the University, we are under no obligation to print what the administration or the student body as a whole wants to hear. We receive no funding from tuition or student fees and have no oversight from any member of the administration or faculty. As editor in chief, I have the final say over what content goes into the paper each week.

At the same time, we encourage this sort of lively discussion. It is important for members of the campus to be passionate about topics, even if they are attacking something in our paper. We would rather you write to us and tell us what you see wrong, than stay silent.

I encourage you to use your voice and submit Letters to the Editor to themirror.feedback@gmail.com at anytime or stop by the office and talk. We will certainly be having an internal discussion on the matter and also invite anyone who wishes to speak to our editorial board to come to the office at 6:30 p.m. on Monday, Oct. 5.

We appreciate your thoughts and concerns and will take them into consideration. Please feel free to email me anytime at tom.w.cleary@gmail.com or stop by the office to chat.

We will be covering the story today with articles and pictures from the protest, as well as video and invite anyone to comment on the article with their thoughts.

Thank you,

Tom Cleary
Editor in Chief

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