Let us first establish a list of the guilty, and recall the events that have made them so. Joshua Tremblay wrote an article under the name of the Editorial Board last week regarding the issue of Snack. Not only did this article include numerous factual errors, but we question the intent of the article itself, as well as its journalistic integrity.

First of all, Snack has only been in existence for the last five years—not “over three decades,” as was stated in the article—and one of those years was at Frank. This hardly marks a tradition. Furthermore, when the current Juniors and Seniors were Freshmen, numerous sponsor groups existed in both Walker and Smiley, so not all Freshmen were walking up from South Campus.

Tremblay then claims that we have “taken hours away from a sizable group of employees who depend on these hours, about five hours in total per Snack lost to South Campus, to provide for themselves and their families.” Also a lie. Not a single dining hall worker lost hours due to the change, as noted by Dean Quinley in her email to the students.

It is also a fact that Snack is not under the jurisdiction of Senate, despite Tremblay’s assertions. Dean Quinley and the Dining Services currently make all decisions regarding Snack, and the most influence that Senate can have is to provide a letter of advisory. If the issue were to be democratically debated, let it be noted that over 60% of the student body resides on South Campus.

Though it is true that the staff of the TSL had to walk down to South Campus for the last two weeks on the night of their production, we feel that this in itself is no justification for publishing inflammatory lies. Moreover, we feel that it is irresponsible for leaders of the community to pit all of the “pissed off upperclassmen” against the “snotty-nosed, selfish underclassmen brats” when it is clearly in the best interest of the College to avoid such superficial divisions. The next time we witness such fury and passion, let it be directed toward something more substantial.

You have discredited yourself and the newspaper. We hope that the student body joins us in expressing dissatisfaction with Tremblay and TSL in order to prevent this from happening in the future.

Galen Benshoof ‘06
Chris Thompson ‘06
Buster Zalkind ‘07