Clarifying the AOA e-mail
By Tim Dreisbach
Published on Thursday, October 18, 2007
To the Editor:
The Dartmouth's editorial staff should check with their own writers to get their facts straight before forming and presenting opinions ("An Old Tradition Fails, Again," Oct. 12). A majority of the Association of Alumni's executive committee composed a communication to students, in follow-up to the one sent to them by College President James Wright. This was noted in the statement itself. Our message was given to a student volunteer for emailing. Apparently the "from" field in the email only referred to the association, rather than the correct "majority of the executive committee."
It is particularly interesting that The D did something similar and arguably worse, labeling this the "most recent hijinx" of the association generally, in order to tar the judgment abilities of all alumni, instead of just being critical of those behind the email. How could the association, even by accident, counterfeit its own name? E-mails regularly come from the Alumni Council without them being formalized in a vote. The D might better spend its time focusing on the content of the message, which considers issues having more direct impact on current and future students.