To the Editor:

I write to express my disappointment in the article printed by The News last week regarding the upcoming Student Council elections. The numerous errors in the article threaten the fairness of the elections, and the attempt to disclose confidential information is equally troubling.

First, The News inaccurately stated that Christian Duffy is, and has been, a member of the Student Council since his freshman year. While he did serve during the ’05-’06 term, he has not been on the Student Council over the past year. This misstatement – which would have been easy to double-check – is a slight to Alex Hillbrand, a current fifth form representative who was not mentioned in the article.

An even more serious issue is that the article attempted to reveal the names of the top two vote recipients in each gender in the first circling conducted on January 13. Aside from being inappropriate, the information given was incorrect: multiple names listed were wrong. The News thus gave an unfair advantage to certain candidates while hurting others who truly earned the support of their classmates. And again, The News did not attempt to corroborate this misinformation before going to print.

I understand the appeal of writing an “insider’s” perspective on the upcoming elections. However, I ask that The News respect the time-honored election process. The Student Council’s policy is strictly against campaigning, as we want the candidates to compete on a level playing field when they deliver their speeches on February 14. When confidential information about vote tallies is printed, even if it were correct, the integrity of the election is compromised.

The article printed last week has done potentially irreparable damage to this year’s election. I sincerely hope that The News has learned its lesson and will refrain from printing similar articles in the future. Most importantly, I urge readers to disregard the information in the article, as its copious errors render it entirely meaningless.

Jeff Rosen ’07

The writer is the Student Council President