Dear Vice President for Student Affairs Smita Ruzicka, Vice President for Administration and Chief Risk Officer Mike Thomas and Public Safety Director Dimitria Kirby,
We are writing in response to your Letter to the Editor, published in today’s issue of The Campus, which claims that The Campus’ Nov. 4 article “Student suffers near-critical medical emergency at Marriott Hotel without support from Public Safety” contains factual inaccuracies. In our opinion, the decision to submit this letter while declining to share what those inaccuracies are is irresponsible and does not contribute to the clarity that students deserve about the situation.
The Campus takes factual issues seriously and strives to provide accurate and accountable journalism. We seek to make corrections to articles when we are made aware of inaccuracies in our reporting. In this case, we stand by our decision to publish the article as an accurate portrayal of events as relayed to us by our sources, and we will continue to stand by the information in the article unless we are provided with clarification about any possible inaccuracies in the piece. The nature of this Letter to the Editor further muddles the information about this incident, and does not allow us the ability to provide clarity about the events described in the article.
Writing a letter that seeks to dispute the facts of an article but neglects to name what those facts are dangerously discredits the content of an entire article. In our role as a student newspaper, we feel the need to tell stories like the one in this article, even and especially when they pertain to incidents that the college won’t provide details about.
Riley Board ’22, Editor in Chief
Lucy Townend ’22, Managing Editor
Abigail Chang ’23, Managing Editor
Riley Board '22 is the Editor in Chief of The Campus. She previously served as a Managing Editor, News Editor, Arts & Academics Editor and writer.
She is majoring in Linguistics as an Independent Scholar and is an English minor on the Creative Writing Track.
Board has worked as a writer at Smithsonian Folklife Magazine and as a reporter for The Burlington Free Press. Currently, she is a 2021-2022 Kellogg Fellow working on her linguistics thesis. In her free time, you can find her roller skating in E-Lot or watching the same sitcoms over and over again.
Lucy Townend '22 is a Managing Editor alongside Abigail Chang.
She previously served as a senior section editor, a local editor, and a copy editor.
Townend is majoring in International Politics and Economics, studying French throughout her years at Middlebury and is planning on completing a thesis focused on income inequality and regime change.
This previous summer, Townend interned as a private banking analyst at a mid-sized bank in Chicago and plans to continue her work there after graduation.
Abigail Chang ’23 (she/her) is the Editor in Chief.
She previously served as a managing editor, Senior News Editor, News Editor and co-host of The Campus' weekly news radio show.
Chang is majoring in English and minoring in linguistics. She is a member of the Media Portrayals of Minorities Project, a Middlebury lab that uses computer-assisted and human coding techniques to analyze bulk newspaper data.
Throughout last year, Chang worked on source diversity and content audits for different media properties as an intern for Impact Architects LLC. Chang spent summer 2021 in Vermont, working as a general assignment reporter for statewide digital newspaper VTDigger. Chang is also a member of the Middlebury Paradiddles, an a cappella group.
