For the past several months, the Fairfield University student newspaper has come under fire for a sex column it published in September. Some students at Fairfield filed harassment charges against the Mirror for a particularly eye-catching "He Said/She Said" column. The administration even threatened to pull funding for the paper.
In reaction to the maelstrom of criticism, the Mirror finally decided to ax the controversial column all together. In a letter from the senior executive board of the paper, editors say that publishing the September 30 column was an obvious mistake. But the letter also says that the mistake is not worth cutting the entire funding of the Mirror or questioning the paper's value.
"That language was printed with the potential to offend did not mean the Mirror should be punished and it did not mean the students should lose their right to an independent student newspaper free from the influence of the university," the letter says.
According to the letter, the Mirror's editorial board and the students who had filed harassment charges against the newspaper met this past weekend. The Mirror's editors agreed to cut the "He Said/She Said" column for good, saying the character behind the column had become "stuck inside the box of 'He Said' and simply portrayed stereotypes instead of challenging them.
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