Letter: Students follies their own business

posted in: Opinion | 0

Choosing not to publish incident reports has more to do with students than with wanting to put the university’s “best foot forward.” True, the Index did not publish the names of those involved, but Pacific is a small school, and anyone who thinks that people cannot figure it out based on the date, time, descriptions, and places (look again, those were published) is seriously mistaken.

This is not an issue of withholding truth from the general student population; it is an issue of privacy and rights. To say that FERPA does not apply to the Index, and thus imply that it should be free to publish detailed accounts of students’ mistakes, is childish and offensive. FERPA rules may seem excessive and irritating at times (ask any Resident Assistant oncampus) but they exist for a reason; they are meant to protect individuals’ rights, the right to an education and a degree of privacy, not the right to read the Index and gossip about what went down last weekend.

The only people that need to know the details of these incidents are the residents involved, CPS, and specific Housing and Residence Life staff. I am just glad that other offices and departments at this university have more tact than the Pacific Index.

-Cherice Cochrane

A&S Undergraduate

Resident Assistant

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