The University of Utah's Independent Student Voice

The Daily Utah Chronicle

The University of Utah's Independent Student Voice

The Daily Utah Chronicle

The University of Utah's Independent Student Voice

The Daily Utah Chronicle

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Want your voice to be heard? Submit a letter to the editor, send us an op-ed pitch or check out our open positions for the chance to be published by the Daily Utah Chronicle.
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Greek Council: no comment

The Greek Council and The Chronicle are officially on the outs.

Yes, in years past, there has been a little tension here and there, but after a recent article (“Neighbors voice concerns about relations with greeks, U,” Nov. 3) was viewed by some on the council and those throughout the greek community as an unnecessary one-sided slam against greeks, the council has taken the official stance that, for the duration of the members’ terms, it will refuse comment to The Chronicle.

The council has notified the presidents of houses on Greek Row of its decision and will leave it up to next year’s newly elected officers to decide whether or not to resume communication.

“I feel (the article) painted a very partial picture of the situation,” said Lori McDonald, assistant dean of students and adviser to the greeks. “It’s my understanding that (the greeks) were frustrated with how they were quoted and they weren’t allowed to respond to allegations made by other sources.”

She is speaking of sources like Beverly Nelson, who is notorious throughout the greek community for being the neighbor who complains more than anyone in the world has ever complained before.

Take the “car parked in front of the driveway” story. A child having a seizure is an extremely serious matter. However, McDonald said, “It was represented in the article as a current and persistent issue when the actual incident occurred several years ago and hasn’t been duplicated since.”

In addition, McDonald explained that after being notified of this incident years ago, the greeks looked up the license plate of the car in question, which Nelson had recorded, and it was not registered to any U student.

McDonald said that, when interviewed for the story, she wasn’t asked any questions about specific instances of contention between the greeks and their neighbors. Instead, she said, she was asked for the names of people on the neighborhood relations committee and whether or not a relocation of the houses on Greek Row was imminent.

At the time this article was written, the ban on communication was in effect, leaving this article void of a critical source: the voice of the students on Greek Council who feel that they were misrepresented.

The greek community is an important part of the news The Chronicle reports on. Without their voices, some of the more important things that happen on this campus will go unreported.

If anything, there are two huge lessons to be learned from a situation that will hopefully be repaired in the near future.

First, the news is supposed to be fair. There is a difference between people being upset because someone wrote a bad story about them that was true and people refusing to speak because they truly feel that a story was one-sided.

Maybe there needs to be more communication about the expectations reporters and sources have from one another.

Maybe what both parties need is an understanding to be more understanding.

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