The article characterized professors at the College as being more liberal than students.
According to Ben Falby '03, the reporter who wrote the article, Kate Zernike, sat in on a meeting organized by Martha Saxton, professor of women's and gender studies, and Barry O'Connell, professor of English, that was expressly intended to promote open dialogue.
Falby said the reporter was honest when she arrived and told the group up front that she had a story to write. Zernike said she felt professors were of a generation informed by Vietnam, and students were informed by the tragedy of Sept. 11. "She had decided that this made professors more liberal and students more conservative," said Falby. "I got the sense she left here a little disappointed, but she had enough to quotes to write her article."
David Chen '05, who was quoted in the article, also expressed disappointment.
"Zernike sat in on a discussion that I would characterize as a somewhat spirited debate between anti-war and pro-war students, something which she barely alludes to in her piece," said Chen. "In the article, she tries to polarize an anti-war, leftist faculty against a pro-war conservative student body. In fact, I can speak from experience that the student body's position cannot be so easily characterized and I feel that she tried to oversimplify a deeply complex issue," said Chen.
Chen and Falby both said they thought Zernike misrepresented the campus.
"I think the group of us presented her with a pretty nuanced version of the atmosphere here and she was merely interested in selectively plugging in the details that fit in snugly with her pre-fabricated literary idea," said Julie Babayan '03, who participated in one of the discussions Zernike sat in on.
"The quotes were accurate, it was merely a question of context," said Falby. "It seemed a little exaggerated. The conservative and liberal students I talked to felt that it was inaccurate."
In the article, Zernike said that Falby organized a protest at the College only to find that more professors than students attended.
According to Falby, it was not a protest he organized, but an anti-war coalition meeting that many professors had been invited to so they could discuss how the community could go about approaching the issue of war on the local level.
Chen said it was obvious to him Zernike had not come to campus with an open mind.
"During the actual discussion she asked me very leading questions, seemingly hoping for a sensationalistic soundbite," said Chen. "Upon reading the finished product, it became clear to me that she had a preconceived notion of the article she was going to write and simply wanted to get quotes to support her claim," said Chen.