When I was chosen as editor in chief of the Daily last year, I knew it would be a big job. I knew I’d have to make important decisions based on taste, ethics and newsworthiness; decisions that could affect the lives of people I didn’t even know.

I just didn’t expect it to happen within the first two weeks of school.

On Aug. 29 an ISU student reported she had been raped to the Department of Public Safety. The Daily reported the story, with details about the four men, mainly that they were black.

On Aug. 30 DPS reported that the student had lied about the rape and the Daily reported it, editorializing about the waste of time and energy this false report had caused. We said this student should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law and we waited to find out who it could possibly be.

We found out Sept. 4 and ran the story including the name of the sorority the girl belongs to.

Since then I’ve had a lot of people ask me why we included the information that we did in these stories; how we decided what was important to include and what wasn’t.

For me, it comes down to good journalism – providing the most informative, fair and complete story possible.

It’s not about favoring one group of people and nailing others to the wall; not about the Daily hating greeks or being unsupportive of minority groups on campus. I can assure you the people in 108 Hamilton Hall have plenty of other things to focus their energies on, myself included.

So then why did we include the information that we did?

As far as the race of the supposed rapists – when we reported the rape claim DPS, Ames and Story County law enforcement officials were combing the area searching for these four men. Bulletins were around campus advising people to walk in groups or use the DPS escort service, and it was scary.

So we included the race detail as a way to help aid the search, as the potential piece that could help someone remember exactly what they had noticed as they walked by Gilman Hall Aug. 29 at 11 a.m. It was providing information in our story to benefit the community as a whole and we would have included it no matter what race the suspects were.

Regarding the name of the sorority in the subsequent Sept. 4 story, this is more complicated. The crux of it is that a complete story shouldn’t raise questions in the minds of readers.

From my perspective it was simply skirting the issue to include the address of the house, which is on a street recognized in the greek area near campus, and not include the name. Readers shouldn’t have to rely on addresses in a phone book to answer questions raised by a story in the Daily.

On that note, I’d hope our readers are mature enough to realize these stories were about a specific incident with one individual instead of creating childish stereotypes about the different groups named within them. That kind of stuff may have flown in high school, but we’re in college now and should have the thinking skills to separate the issues for what they are.

I would also like to add that none of these decisions were made without careful thought, consideration and discussion among the Daily staff. And they continue to be a point of discussion and debate every time we’re presented with a situation involving them, because they aren’t easy.

Decisions affecting people’s lives never are.

Andrea Hauser is a senior in journalism and mass communication from Edgewood. She is editor in chief of the Daily.