Letter from Senior Executive Board: Why is He Said/She Said Gone?

For over two months now a debate has overtaken the campus: was The Mirror wrong for running the controversial He Said column on Sept. 30? That question, brought about by a motivated, brave and offended group of students, was not a difficult one to answer. It was a mistake. The language was too harsh and while the intention was never to offend and was never to even come close to referencing rape, it did. And whether that is intentional or not, it should have been realized by The Mirror editors. Again, we apologize for making that mistake.

But nonetheless a mistake was made by a group of students. That didn’t mean the students should be punished, it didn’t mean the students should lose their right to an independent student newspaper free from the influence of the University. What it did mean was that a group of students wanted their voice heard by a newspaper that they were the readers of. That is the essential ideas of newspapers: the paper is the watchdog of the government and the community and the readers are the watchdog of the newspaper.

Unfortunately, because of a myriad of issues, including a confusion that was created in part by the administration, the two sides were never able to properly meet until this Saturday, when the Mirror executive board met with  the students offended by the column, who had made harassment charges with Public Safety. The result was two months of frustration that allowed the issue to spin out of control and away from what the protesters really wanted to do, which was get the attention of The Mirror.

Luckily, when the two sides sat down, students with students, the issue was settled. Both sides realized there was more in common between them than different. By simply talking out the issues, a change was made, one that The Mirror had been considering since the controversy started. In the end mediation worked properly, but is also showed future groups that The Mirror will listen, you just have to give them a chance.

We were truly disturbed as a group to learn the effect that the words of the He Said column had on students on campus.  It was saddening to learn that the column brought back such bad memories for them. It was also disappointing that Chris Surette, who is in no way like the character he portrayed, suffered so much from the incident because it took so long to be resolved.

We learned from the mediation and from internal discussions that the character has become the problem. It was not Surette or any other writers, but the character who was stuck inside the box of He Said, expected to portray stereotypes instead of erase and challenge them. That is why He Said/She Said has been ended. It was not a barter deal, although the harassment charges were lifted. The charges were lifted instead because they were brought about to make The Mirror listen, a fact the protestors learned they had really done from the beginning, but never knew.

This situation has allowed us all to participate in the main goal of a university: learning. And we hope the situation can encourage more. The deeper issue is sexual assault and we learned that this University does not tolerate it. But some are forced to stay silent. We want to help those people and therefore we have set a date for the Sexual Assault Awareness Week, an idea proposed in an October press release from The Mirror. The week of April 14, during National Sexual Assault Awareness Month, we will work with other groups on campus and students who want to discuss the issue of sexual assault, one that is often kept quiet. It is important for us to take a negative situation and make it a positive by providing a voice to those who want to speak on the issue.  We hope that those who wrote The Broken Mirror, who clearly care enough to speak out, will be willing to share their voices in the paper that week, and anytime.

We want everyone to know that The Mirror is approachable.  We are always anxious and willing to hear feedback and it is important to receive that feedback so we can better serve our readers.

The issues that have arisen because of the situation, especially those about freedom of expression, are not what the protestors wanted to bring up on the day they came to the office in September.

Unfortunately for them, that became the bigger issue on campus.  While we still heavily support our right to free speech, we understand it comes with responsibilities. And we did not act responsibly by publishing that specific column.  It was not the editors fault necessarily or Surette’s fault. It was a position we were all forced into by the tradition of He Said/She said, which is why we know if has to be changed.

That is not to say that we do not want edgy, controversial and humorous columns, but we want the writers to own them, instead of having them be written in the role of a character.
The successful mediation, which forced both the editors and the protestors to wake up early on a Saturday morning and devout hours in a busy time of year to resolving the issue, was extremely positive.  It is great to know that the protestors never wanted The Mirror to end, but just wanted their voices heard. It was also a positive to show we are willing to listen. In the end the changes will accomplish our main goal: to improve newspaper.

We appreciate the braveness and willingness of the protestors to stand up to what they believed in and take action. It is important for students to make their voices heard and challenge the stereotypes of the campus. That is a goal we have and a goal that the protestors had. It is a positive for us to know that when we make a mistake and forget the goals and responsibilities that we have, the students will be their to pick up the slack.

We just hope that in the future it can be settled in the way it was this time. With students talking to students, away from the administration and away from the student handbook. In this case, we think it all worked out well.