Editor in chief
This week, a column by Tiffany Burba about men publicly commenting on women’s appearances created a firestorm of comments. As you can see on the online version of the column, readers responded on our ReadrBoard with overwhelmingly negative feedback, especially, “Uh, no.”
Any longtime reader of The Diamondback’s staff editorials, which I sign off on, should know the editorial board espouses generally liberal, pro-feminist viewpoints regarding gender equality, sexual assault and women’s rights. As stated in the opinion page’s policy, each column published in The Diamondback is the opinion of its author and not of the editorial board or any other member of the newspaper.
During the editing process, a few of the editors whose hands that column passed through raised concerns and made changes. By the time that column ran in the print paper and got uploaded to the website, it was grammatically correct, defensible and factually correct. Our primary concerns with any opinion column are those three tenets.
So we published it. Regardless of the editors’ opinions of that column or the concept Burba was writing about, we knew it was a viewpoint that deserved a place in the public discourse of the university community. I’d rather not weigh in on the subject specifically because I don’t like to throw my staff members under the bus. But I had my concerns while editing the piece.
And it did start a discourse. The responses we got were well written and well reasoned. It’s always encouraging to see the community reach out to The Diamondback to tell us what we can do differently or to comment on any happenings.
If you want to submit a guest column or a letter to the editor, please do so. We want to hear from you — even if you want to tell us a columnist is completely wrong. Send an email to opinionumdbk@gmail.com at any time, and we’ll try to work with you to see what we can do with your input.
Other than that, we had more updates from the data breach and some (later dashed) hopes about the Terrapins men’s basketball team doing well in the ACC Tournament.
Here’s the rest of what I found interesting this week:
Monday
Staff editorial: The University Senate Executive Committee is set to address a proposal Wednesday asking permission to combine athletics and alcohol and sell alcohol at athletic events. Here are five good reasons to enact this change for the university community.
In doing something different, Terrapins men’s basketball coach Mark Turgeon finally got a big win over the No. 5 Virginia Cavaliers in overtime.
—Daniel Gallen
A recent trend I’ve noticed among my friends at this university scared and excited even a serial dieter/culinary daredevil like me: Juice cleansing, a spell of cutting out all solid foods in favor of freshly made raw vegetable and fruit juices, promises to “detoxify” your body, resulting in quick weight loss and a renewed sense of well-being. It sounded simultaneously awful and too good to be true.
I had to try it.
—Read Eric Bricker’s live-tweeting of his #dbkjuice cleanse here.
Tuesday
Four employees suffered injuries when the Green Tidings food truck caught fire Friday afternoon, Holly Cuozzo reported. That loss hit me particularly hard because those at Green Tidings are some of the most pleasant, interesting university employees around, and they make amazing food. I’ve eaten at the food truck dozens of times, and in October, the editorial board weighed in on just how awesome it is.
If Christopher Jewell’s research goes according to plan, the treatment for the most common form of cancer in infants will be almost as simple as getting a flu shot.
The bioengineering professor and his assistants in the Jewell Research Lab are developing a cure for neuroblastoma — a disease that kills one child worldwide every 16 hours — that would come in the form of a therapeutic vaccine.
—Joe Antoshak
Wednesday
In a Tuesday column, Burba wrote about how women should take unsolicited comments gratefully from men in public about their appearance as compliments. The column elicited hundreds of responses, almost entirely disagreeing with Burba’s central point. On Wednesday, we published a couple of these responses, with their central point being, “Telling other women how they should react to something they perceive as threatening is uncalled for.”
Our staff editorial analyzes the question, “Why do college athletes see so little return on investment, considering their roles as the NCAA’s workhorses?”
Despite brain surgeries, countless MRIs and chemotherapy treatments, Zachary Lederer always maintained that he was “living the dream.” Even when he learned two years ago he would have to battle brain cancer a second time, he refused to let the disease sideline him.
His strongman pose shortly after a second intensive brain surgery in 2012 instantly went viral, all the while uniting and inspiring a community. So when news spread Tuesday night that Lederer had succumbed to cancer, more than 200 students assembled outside Comcast Center, candles in hand, to pay their respects. Lederer’s initials, “ZL,” were spelled out in candles in front of the Testudo outside Comcast.
They wanted to honor the young man who taught them life was worth fighting for, that no day should go unappreciated.
—Yasmeen Abutaleb
The FBI headquarters is moving, and Greenbelt could be its new home.
—Ellie Silverman
Police found a .22-caliber handgun in Terrapins football running back Wes Brown’s South Campus Commons apartment during a Baltimore Police Department investigation July 4, as first reported by The Baltimore Sun.
—Teddy Amenabar and Jenny Hottle
Columnist Daniel Gallen writes about the upcoming Big Ten move for the Terps men’s basketball team:
There’s not much cause for concern when the likes of Michigan, Indiana and Michigan State visit Comcast Center next winter. Change, as always, is difficult, and the absence of a Duke or North Carolina game on the schedule might tug at some heartstrings. But the Terps — and their fans — have shown already they can adapt to realignment.
Ten years ago, guard John Gilchrist led an underdog Terps team on a historic run for the program’s first ACC tournament championship since 1984. This week, in their final conference tournament, the Terps [had] a similar chance to leave a lasting mark on the league.
—Read the rest of Aaron Kasinitz’s feature, “A CHANCE TO REPEAT HISTORY,” here.
Thursday
Though initial reports indicated the victimized population of February’s security breach did not include those enrolled at this university before 1998, officials announced Wednesday that thousands of students who attended as far back as 1992 were also among those affected.
Officials also lowered the official number of affected records to 287,580 — down from the 309,079 first reported to The Diamondback on Feb. 19.
—Joe Antoshak
Summer construction near McKeldin Mall will shut down part of Campus Drive before any Purple Line work begins, Facilities Management officials said.
Workers will close the downhill traffic lane June 9 to build the Edward St. John Learning and Teaching Center, a $111 million project devoted solely to providing classroom space at the site of Shriver Laboratory and Holzapfel Hall.
—Jeremy Snow
Not long after a state agency’s proposed cuts to the University System of Maryland budget prompted students to rally outside the capitol building in Annapolis, the state Senate recommended a budget with cuts that go even further.
—Jim Bach
Friday
Opinion
The Diamondback editorial board, two columnists and two cartoonists weigh in on the Purple Line and its potential future effects on this campus.
Diversions
One of the few directors whose name has become an adjective, Wes Anderson’s exacting bric-a-brac visuals and whimsical yet sad narratives make his films immediately recognizable. A true auteur, his output is consistently strong, a trend that continues with the newly released The Grand Budapest Hotel.
See you next week.
