Published on Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Letter to the Editor: Jean Giveaway article failed to give credit where credit was due

By LETTER WRITER

[Back in February,] I grabbed a paper and leafed through it looking for articles that catch my eye, much like I do everyday. I was floored to see a picture of a Great Jean Giveaway box that I had helped to decorate. Then I read the article.

Before I go any farther, let me say that I am very pleased to see National Eating Disorder Awareness Week (NEDA) given attention by the Northern Star. This is a great cause that needs to be brought to the attention of our students, because eating disorders affect a great many of them.

Unfortunately, I know a few students at NIU who are going to be just as disappointed with this article as I was: the other members of Active Minds. We are a student organization that helped co-sponsor NEDA. Specifically, we are responsible for the Great Jean Giveaway boxes in the residence halls. That box in the picture [was] one of ours. Active Minds spent hours working on this event. We scrounged for the boxes, decorated them, created the flyers accompanying them, placed them in the halls and [collected] the clothes throughout the week. And yet there was not a single mention of our organization in the article on the Great Jean Giveaway.

This is not the first time I have noticed missing or misprinted information in a Northern Star article. So I am asking the staff to please, take a little extra time on your articles, and be sure that you are not printing any wrong information or leaving out any other information that is important to the article. Students love reading your newspaper, and I know you work hard to get it out everyday. Try not to sacrifice the quality of your writing when you are racing to meet your deadlines.

Sarah Hanchett
senior psychology major