What We Learned from the Grandy Story
As many of our readers are aware, The Exonian published an article in our last issue calling attention to the controversy surrounding the senior seminar that was to be hosted by former congressman and Exeter alumnus Fred Grandy ’66. The article detailed the on-campus response to a number of statements that Grandy had made over the course of the past several years. The nature of these statements was considered by some to be Islamophobic, and members of the Exeter community disagreed on whether Grandy should be permitted to conduct his seminar. The intent of the article was not to determine whether or not Grandy is an Islamophobe, but rather to call attention to a campus issue that was clearly contentious and not well known.
However, a crucial mistake was made in the article. Grandy was not given the chance to address the concerns regarding his presence on campus, and his voice was absent from our piece. Although writers made three email requests for Grandy’s contact information, they received no response from two different administrators and failed to follow up on their requests. As editors, we take responsibility for choosing to go forward with the publication of this piece, despite the lack of a comment from Grandy. We regret not giving Grandy the basic privilege of defending himself in the article and apologize for not finding another way to contact him before publishing it.
Despite its problem, we are encouraged by the response the article has initiated. Some faculty and students have levelled criticism at The Exonian. On the other hand, many community members have complimented us on our coverage of an issue they would not have otherwise known about. We endeavour to print content that informs our readers about essential issues of public interest and fosters discussion on campus, and are excited to see the Exeter community engaging with us and with each other on this topic.
While we make no attempts to sidestep our responsibility to be fair journalists, we would like to take this opportunity to highlight a significant problem that arises in our line of work. As we go about the weekly process of gathering information, we find that faculty, staff and administrators are often reluctant to make comments on the record or give us the full story. This forces our writers to rely on many of the same voices week after week. It also makes it difficult to publish articles with accurate information and balanced opinions, and places a heavy burden on those who do choose to speak out. We applaud the courage of those like Mercy Carbonell, who in last week’s issue spoke her mind passionately. We are also glad that Grandy chose to join the discussion with a letter we have printed below. We encourage more Exonians to follow their lead, and promise to be fair when quoting them.
Last week was the first issue of a new board. While we made some mistakes, in the future we hope to provide a forum with diverse opinions and keep our readers informed about the important issues that concern them. We will do our best to win your trust.
Editor’s Note: In the Jan. 14, 2016 issue of The Exonian, we incorrectly reported in “Alum’s Senior Seminar Prompts Controversy” that Institutional Advancement worked with Brooks Moriarty on the seminar initiative. Robert Azzi P’02 was misidentified as Mark Azziz ’02.