This past Tuesday, MCSG passed several very important resolutions. However, we would like to draw attention to one in particular. Regardless of the veiled language used in this particular resolution, it remains clear to informed readers that the three-part resolution (passed by a margin of 11-9) is a condemnation of Professor Terry Boychuk’s actions this Thursday past. We apologize ahead of time to anyone who may feel we have misrepresented the facts of the situation, but it merely reflects just how uninformed we are as a community about this situation, as well as illustrates how inappropriate it was for us to pass judgment.

As you undoubtedly know, The Mac Weekly stopped distribution of last week’s issue because the Editor in Chief received a threatening letter from Professor Boychuk’s lawyer. We are strongly in opposition to the role taken by the LB in this situation. The self-proclaimed righteousness that the LB adopted in criticizing Professor Boychuk is inappropriate.

We ask that you all put yourselves in the shoes of Professor Boychuk. After having just been granted tenure and being exonerated by the Judicial Forum from charges of sexual harassment, he hears that The Mac Weekly will be running an article about the results, further harming his reputation on campus. Yet, because Professor Boychuk remains committed to the confidentiality agreement he ascribed to in the Judicial Forum, he cannot openly comment on the article for the paper. Instead, the paper’s article will rely on information provided by the complainant in the investigation, who violated the Judicial Proceeding's request to remain silent. Journalistic ethics prevent the Weekly from showing Professor Boychuk the article before printing. Thus, Boychuk is left in the dark, knowing that his voice will not be heard. Indeed, the only voices that will be heard are those of the people who violated the confidentiality of the investigation.

Can we really pass judgment on Professor Boychuk for attempting to prohibit this article from being printed? We do not believe so. There is no question that The Mac Weekly was well within its legal rights to print such a factual article, despite some of our own misgivings about the ethics of printing an article involving material intended to be confidential. But Professor Boychuk is well within his rights to have his lawyer write a letter to the Editor in Chief expressing that if the article is libelous, he will sue (which the letter did not explicitly say). The threat of suit is directed at the powerful position of the Editor in Chief of a newspaper, not simply as a personal attack on William Sentell. To make a blind claim that no students should ever be subjected to a threat of legal suit is completely antithetical to any system of civil rights. A student can certainly trample on the rights of any individual as readily as an administrator can.

For all intents and purposes, The Mac Weekly could have distributed the article (and been sued later if it were libelous). However, they chose not to distribute the issue altogether. In fact, after consulting with an attorney early this week, their notions that the suit was without standing were reinforced. Nevertheless, the Weekly did not take these preventative steps by ensuring their article was legally sound before they chose to cancel the printing the previous week. A paper such as The Mac Weekly does not often shy away from writing about possibly controversial or contentious issues; this is a major, “real-world” story, involving legalities and far-reaching consequences. The experienced staff of a paper knows that similar “real-world” responses to such a story may occur. Boychuk was within his full legal rights to express his concerns about this story, and he did so. This is realistic, and it is not our place to judge such actions simply because a student is involved.

This is certainly not a condemnation of The Mac Weekly; you will be hard pressed to find stronger advocates for the paper than us. But clearly far too many people have been wronged in this fiasco, on both sides. MCSG has now wrongfully entered the fray by “formally criticizing” Boychuk’s legitimate attempts to protect himself from misinformation while attempting to maintain the confidentiality of the investigation.

All too often at Macalester we get caught up in our own altruistic principles and forget that our actions harm others. Professor Boychuk’s reputation has certainly suffered enough because of the investigation and the MCSG official criticism. Let us put this behind us now, and work constructively to change the overall inadequacies of the system that contributed to this entire situation. However, we caution that standing on Mt. Olympus and delivering judgment on others when we are far removed from the conflict and lack adequate information is not our place. Shame on us all for passing judgement.