There have been a few things published in The Cavalier Daily over the last month or so that I keep thinking about. Most recently, an unsigned letter to the editor, “Concerning our response to tragedy” printed under the name “University of Virginia ’15.” The note at the bottom tells us that a member of the University’s class of 2015 wrote the letter. The letter itself raises important issues about tragedies and our responses to them and the author attempts to address those and call for action. I don’t understand why this letter should be published anonymously. I further don’t understand choosing the name “University of Virginia, ‘15” as it took me a while to decide that it wasn’t purporting to speak on behalf of the entire class. I’ve written previously about being unsure about anonymous comments on the Cavalier Daily website and this goes further than that, allowing anonymity for published pieces.
There are certainly cases and situations where anonymity is warranted and, indeed, essential to protect someone’s safety. In this case, though, there is nothing about the piece that would seem to require protection in this way. Further, because it was a call to personal action, to rethinking depression and suicide, the letter loses much of the effect it could have had if it had come from a specific person. Ultimately, the anonymity that seems to have made the person comfortable publishing this letter undercuts the very point of the letter. The Cavalier Daily should push for more information even or especially about who is writing what is published.
Pushing for more information matters in other areas, too. The University community has absorbed multiple tragedies in the last many weeks. Many of the Opinion pieces in The Cavalier Daily have had to do with how the University or University community has responded to those tragedies. The debate about what is appropriate and what steps should be taken is a good one to have. Calling out what people feel are deficiencies in the various responses is also good. We will not avoid all tragedies in the future and responding effectively in ways that help people is the best we can do when they occur. That said, there were too many knee-jerk responses published that were based on hypothetical musing in the midst of a specific tragedy or that simply lacked basic information.
Comparisons were drawn between the community response to Hannah Graham’s disappearance and Connor Cormier’s death taking the University community to task for its lack of overt, public reaction to the latter. The letter I wrote about, above, also wondered at the lack of a public vigil or some other large, noticeable event following Cormier’s death. The criticism appeared to have missed the mark, as one could learn in the news article published the same day as the op-ed column and the day before the letter.
The understanding, at the time, of University administration officials which appears to have been communicated to Student Council members, at least, was that Cormier’s parents wished for there not to be a public display having to do with Connor. We’ve since learned from Dean of Students Allen Groves, in comments on the Cavalier Daily website, that Connor’s parents would be alright with some sort of public celebration of Connor’s life and recognition of his tragic death.
The information was available and The Cavalier Daily doesn’t seem to have had it. Then, information (Connor’s parent’s wishes) was in a news story that obviated much of an op-ed published the same day and an anonymous letter to follow the next day. Assessing pieces in whole context is vital.
Christopher Broom is The Cavalier Daily’s public editor. He can be reached at publiceditor@cavalierdaily.com, or on Twitter at @cdpubliceditor.
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