Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Unanswered Questions About Sgammato's Op-Ed

The fall out from Greg Sgammato's opinion piece in Thursday's News-Letter continues. National blogs have picked up on the story, many criticizing the article's content. The campus is still talking about it. But there are still some issues left to be addressed.
  • What sort of backlash is Sgammato facing at the News-Letter? Will he resign from his position as managing editor? 
  • How responsible were Lily Newman and Sarah Tan for this article? Did they proof the page and article at all before it went to print?
  • Did Omar Qureshi's close friendship with Sgammato influence his judgment in allowing the article to run? He is Sgammato's roommate (according to sources) and the treasurer of the debate team of which Sgammato is president.
  • What will the University do? Bill Smedick, the faculty adviser, and Susan Boswell, Dean of Student Life, have been unusually silent on this issue.
  • Will the News-Letter print the "apology" they posted online in the coming edition of the paper? Or will they write another "apology" with another explanation?
What questions do you think the News-Letter needs to address?

5 comments:

  1. According to some people close to Sgammato, the article was an experiment to see how Hopkins (the institution) would react, and it was a complete backfire.

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  2. Based on the reaction of the News-Letter, it could not have been an experiment. Reading their apology and omar's email it couldn't have been

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  3. That just sounds like Sgammato trying to salvage his social life, honestly.

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  4. My question: why did the News-Letter go to the trouble of posting an apology that specifically said "We do not apologize"? Open wound, meet lemon juice?

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  5. Frankly, I'm very very happy that the University hasn't done much to respond. After the Justin Park incident a few years at, the University administration at the time showed that they didn't care at all about student rights or free speech. Hopkins has been on FIRE's Red Alert list (Foundation for Individual Rights in Education) for the past three years not only for the ridiculous response to the incident but also for the nonsensical "Civility Code" that Brody created after the incident, but the administration's response here shows that maybe they actually care enough to let students say whatever (however ridiculous or inflammatory) that they want to.

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