Every year, April Fool?s Day involves pranks including the Campus Times April Fool?s edition and the Scuzz, published this year by the Azariah Boody Society.
Among the people at whom this year?s Scuzz took aim were the Delta Kappa Epsilon Fraternity for alleged bigotry, SA President Meng Wang, accused of not accomplishing anything during his administration, and myself for questionable body hygiene.
The attacks on me or others were not an issue, at least to me. What bothered me was the publication?s lack of accountability, because the Society didn?t take credit for it. Nowhere on the Scuzz was it made clear the Boodys published it. They left it to the reader?s imagination.
And, while the Society assured me and members of the Students? Association government Monday in an e-mail that the publication in no way was meant ?to slander individual groups or people,? inevitably some of these people and groups took offense to words within the Scuzz.
Speaking from experience, the intentions of a publication and its results are sometimes entirely different.
The lack of any contact information made it impossible for anyone concerned about the Scuzz to respond to it.
Some who picked up the Scuzz last Sunday assumed it was the SA that put it out. Their conclusion wasn?t too far off base. Until last spring, the SA was responsible for publishing the Buzz daily and by inference began publishing the Scuzz.
Others made the conclusion that the CT was the culprit.
Several angry students directed their comments, concerns and frustrations to me over the past several days. The conclusion wasn?t too misguided.
Since we publish the Buzz twice a week, it is only reasonable to assume that we took over the tradition of the Scuzz from the SA.
Both the SA and the CT were left to bear the publication?s fallout.
To make matters worse, the e-mail the Boodys viewed as an apology was circulated only to a very small group of students on campus.
The actions of the Azariah Boody Society were little better than those of the vandals who have scrawled discriminatory and bigoted remarks around campus over the past month.
Like the vandals, the Boodys didn?t take responsibility for their actions, failing to identify their secret society as the producers of this year?s Scuzz. Who knew whom to complain to?
If people or groups don?t have the courage to stand behind their words, they shouldn?t publish them.
And in my case, if you don?t agree with me, at least you know who to come to.
